[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
ESCALATING VIOLENCE AGAINST COPTIC WOMEN
AND GIRLS: WILL THE NEW EGYPT BE MORE
DANGEROUS THAN THE OLD?
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 18, 2012
__________
Printed for the use of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
[CSCE 112-2-9]
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COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
HOUSE SENATE
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland,
Chairman Co-Chairman
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama TOM UDALL, New Mexico
PHIL GINGREY, Georgia JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER, SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia
New York MARCO RUBIO, Florida
MIKE McINTYRE, North Carolina KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
MICHAEL H. POSNER, Department of State
MICHAEL C. CAMUNNEZ, Department of Commerce
ALEXANDER VERSHBOW, Department of Defense
(ii)
ESCALATING VIOLENCE AGAINST COPTIC
WOMEN AND GIRLS: WILL THE NEW EGYPT BE
MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE OLD?
----------
July 18, 2012
COMMISSIONERS
Page
Hon. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 1
Hon. Robert Aderholt, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 11
WITNESSES
Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair, United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom................................ 3
Michele Clark, Adjunct Professor, Elliott School of International
Affairs, The George Washington University...................... 13
Dr. Walid Phares, Co-Secretary General, The Transatlantic
Legislative Group on Counterterrorism.......................... 19
``Anne,'' a Coptic Christian from Egypt and Attempted Kidnap
Victim......................................................... 23
APPENDICES
Prepared statement of Hon. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe............... 35
Prepared statement of Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett................... 37
Prepared statement of Michele Clark.............................. 53
Prepared statement of Dr. Walid Phares........................... 76
(iii)
ESCALATING VIOLENCE AGAINST COPTIC
WOMEN AND GIRLS: WILL THE NEW EGYPT
BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE OLD?
----------
July 18, 2012
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Washington, DC
The hearing was held at 2 p.m. in room 210, Cannon House
Office Building, Washington, DC, Hon. Christopher H. Smith,
Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
presiding.
Commissioners present: Hon. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Hon.
Robert Aderholt, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Witnesses present: Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair, United
States Commission on International Religious Freedom; Michele
Clark, Adjunct Professor, Elliott School of International
Affairs, The George Washington University; Dr. Walid Phares,
Co-Secretary General, The Transatlantic Legislative Group on
Counterterrorism; and ``Anne,'' a Coptic Christian from Egypt
and Attempted Kidnap Victim.
HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Smith. The Commission will come to order. And good
afternoon and welcome to our hearing on the escalating violence
facing Coptic women and girls in Egypt following the Arab
Spring, including the outrageous crime of abduction, forced
conversion and which the Egyptian government, both old and new,
is doing all too little about, if anything at all. It has now
been almost a year and a half since the revolution began in
Egypt and Egypt is still in the foundry fires of transition,
hopefully into a free and democratic state. The Egyptians have
elected a parliament but the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces, or SCAF, dissolved it with the support of the
constitutional court.
As president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was
elected and installed but not before the SCAF, who seemed to be
mostly secularists, curtailed presidential power over the
military and given the military legislative powers. The
constituent panel, which was drawn from the now-dissolved
parliament and has been boycotted by the Coptic Christians,
began drafting work on Egypt's new constitution. Yet it may be
disbanded any day by a pending court decision. Order seems to
hang by a thread and tensions run extremely high. Though Egypt
has avoided civil war, the revolution and ongoing unrest and
social conflict have already left many casualties in the Coptic
community which makes up almost eight percent of Egypt's
population. Sadly, there are groups that would use the ancient
Christian Coptic community as a way to build unity around a
common enemy.
The SCAF was guilty of this on October 9th, 2011, when the
military fired on a peaceful group of Coptic Christians in
Maspero and ran them over with military vehicles while calling
through the national news service for honorable citizens to
defend the army against attack. That is, the SCAF openly
invited violence against the Coptic community. Twenty-seven
people were killed and more than 300 injured. Almost all of
them were Copts. The military claimed that one soldier was
killed but it refuses to release his name. Almost a year later,
protestors are on trial for the incident and three soldiers
have been charged with only misdemeanors.
As we will hear today from Michele Clark and her new report
on the disappearance, forced marriages and forced conversions
of Coptic women, the vulnerability and abduction of Coptic
Christians is not new. Going back to the 1970s, there were many
accounts of Coptic women and girls being abducted by Muslims,
forcibly conducted and forcibly married. There are many such
reports, no doubt. Some of them were of women choosing to
elope, marry across religious lines and cut off relations with
their family. But the claim of the Egyptian government that
this is the story of every one of the thousands of disappeared
women and girls absolutely defies the evidence. The women and
girls are found--who are found claim to have been drugged and
kidnapped or kidnapped with violence. They often report human
rights abuses including forced conversion, rape, forced
marriages, beatings and domestic servitude.
Alarmingly, since the revolution, cases of--since the
revolution, cases of reported disappearance have increased
while recovery of the women and girls have decreased. Those
women who are found and returned to their families face many
obstacles including government refusals to change their
identity cards to reflect their return to their Christian
faith, which seems to sanction forced conversions. Nor are we
aware of any case before or after the revolution in which an
abductor has been prosecuted.
President Morsi in his first speech as president envisioned
Egypt as being for Muslims and Christians. This must mean true
justice for Copts. Copts must be given equal protection under
the law. Secretary Clinton was in Egypt over the weekend facing
protestors with signs that said, quote, ``Obama, don't send
your dollars to jihadists.'' Congress sent the same message
with the 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act which required
the secretary to certify that Egypt was making improvements in
religious freedom before we released the $1.3 billion in aid.
An unnamed senior State Department official reported to
Reuters that on the basis of American national security
interests, she--meaning Secretary Clinton--will waive the
legislative conditions related to Egypt's democratic
transition, allowing for the continued flow of foreign military
financing to Egypt. ``The move reflects,'' the quote goes on to
say from the unnamed official, ``the move reflects our
overarching goal to maintain our strategic partnership with an
Egypt made stronger and more stable by a successful transition
to democracy.''
This is democracy? My response is simply this. Unless
Coptic women and girls are protected and free to live their
lives without fear of abduction, forced conversion and other
gross abuses of their human rights, Egypt will not be strong,
will not be stable or a successful democracy.
I'd like to begin now with our first witness. We have--and
we thank her for being here today--Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett,
who is an expert on human rights. She received a B.A. in
political science from Yale, her J.D. from the University of
California Hastings College of Law, and her Ph.D. in history
from the University of Southern Denmark. She has worked
extensively with the U.S. Congress to advocate for human
rights, particularly while serving as deputy counsel to the
criminal justice subcommittee.
She teaches human rights and American foreign policy at
Tufts University, serves as the president and CEO of the Lantos
Foundation for Human Rights and Justice--named after her very
distinguished father, who we all deeply miss--and was recently
elected as chair of the U.S. Commission for International
Religious Freedom. Dr. Lantos Swett, welcome, and please
proceed as you would like.
DR. KATRINA LANTOS SWETT, CHAIR, UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON
INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Dr. Swett. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. And I want to
say before I go into my prepared remarks that you are one of
the colleagues my father admired most. Literally one can't
number the times that the two of you were in the trenches side
by side battling on behalf of human rights for people in every
corner of the world.
And my father would often cite you to me and to others as
an example of the way in which people who might be in very
different places on some political issues could come together
and have really no daylight between them on the most
fundamental issues of human dignity and human rights. And so
it's a real privilege and an honor for me to be here before you
today. And thank you for the excellent work that you're doing.
My testimony is going to focus more broadly on the
challenges and threats to the Coptic community in Egypt and I
know subsequently you'll be getting some very powerful
testimony more specifically on the issue of abduction.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today before the
Helsinki Commission on the topic of ``Escalating Violence
Against Coptic Women and Girls: Will the New Egypt Be More
Dangerous Than the Old?'' I have been asked today to give an
overview about the general status of, and conditions for,
religious freedom in Egypt, especially for Coptic Christians,
and I request that my statement be entered into the record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
Dr. Swett. Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, USCIRF
has been deeply engaged on Egypt and for good reason. For our
entire existence, and indeed, prior to our creation, religious
freedom conditions, including those of Egypt's Coptic
population, have been extremely problematic. This situation
continues into the present and with the election of Mohammed
Morsi, the first freely elected president of Egypt, on June
30th. The Egyptian transitional government continues to engage
in and tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of
freedom of religious freedom.
Discriminatory and repressive laws and policies remain that
restrict freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief.
Given these concerns, and for the second year in a row, USCIRF
recommended in its 2012 annual report, which I have here, by
the way, and I'd be delighted to leave with you for the
Commission--USCIRF recommended that Egypt be designated a
country of particular concern, or CPC, under the 1998
International Religious Freedom Act. I also request that
USCIRF's 2012 annual report chapter on Egypt be entered into
the record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection.
Dr. Swett. Thank you. From the evidence we have seen, the
biggest problem faced by the Copts, who comprise 10 to 15
percent of Egypt's 80 million people, continues to be one of
impunity. Simply stated, for decades, Egypt's government has
fostered a climate conducive to acts of violence against Copts
and members of other minority communities. It has done so in at
least two ways. First, Cairo's long history of restrictive laws
and policies--from blasphemy codes to an emergency law to
across-the-board discrimination--has drawn unwelcome attention
to religious minorities, further marginalizing them and leading
to violent words and deeds launched by intolerant individuals
as well as by radical religious groups.
Second, the government's continued failure to protect
innocent people from these attacks and to convict those
responsible has served to encourage further assaults. For
years, President Mubarak's government tolerated widespread
discrimination against religious minorities and disfavored
religious groups, from dissident Sunni and Shia Muslims to
Baha'is, as well as Copts and other Christians, while allowing
state-controlled media and state-funded mosques to deliver
incendiary messages against them. The consequences of the
climate of impunity are especially apparent in Upper Egypt.
After Mubarak's departure, a breakdown in security and a
rise in sectarian violence made 2011 one of the worst years for
Copts and other minorities. Last year alone, violent sectarian
attacks killed approximately 100 people, surpassing the death
toll of the previous 10 years combined. As during the Mubarak
regime, Copts were the primary target, and most of the
perpetrators still have not been brought to justice.
Perpetrators have not been convicted or alleged perpetrators
have been detained for short periods, but eventually released
without charge. While USCIRF's 2012 annual report chapter on
Egypt includes a list of some of the most tragic acts of
violence committed against the Coptic Orthodox community, I do
want to note the following significant incident, which you also
referred to.
Last October, Egypt's state media falsely accused Copts of
attacking the military when Muslim and Christian protestors
marched toward the state television station. Following the
state media's call on civilians to counter this imaginary
threat, on October 9th, in downtown Cairo, armed men attacked
peaceful demonstrators, killing at least 26 of them, most of
them Copts, while injuring over 300 more.
Responding to the violence, Egypt's military used live
ammunition and also deployed armored vehicles that deliberately
crushed and killed at least 12 protestors. In addition, reports
in recent years support claims that there were cases of Muslim
men forcing Coptic Christian women to convert to Islam. The
State Department has asserted that such cases are often
disputed and include, quote, ``inflammatory allegations and
categorical denials of kidnapping and rape.'' For example,
there were credible cases in which Coptic girls did voluntarily
convert to Islam to marry Muslim men, and subsequently, when
the relationship failed, sought to return to Christianity, as
is their right under international law. Nevertheless, during
the reporting period, experts and human rights groups have
found that there were also credible cases where Coptic
Christian women were lured deceptively into marriages with
Muslim men and forced to convert to Islam. According to these
reports, if a woman returns or escapes from the marriage and
wants to convert back to Christianity, she faces the same legal
hurdles in changing her religious affiliation on official
identity documents as discussed.
In recent years, in response to sectarian violence,
Egyptian authorities have conducted, quote, ``reconciliation
sessions'' between Muslims and Christians as a way of easing
tensions and resolving disputes. In some cases, authorities
compelled victims to abandon their claims to any legal remedy.
USCIRF has stated that reconciliation efforts should not be
used to undermine enforcing the law and punishing perpetrators
for wrongdoing. In recent years, the State Department concluded
that reconciliation sessions not only, quote, ``prevented the
prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against Copts and
precluded their recourse to the judicial system for
restitution,'' but also ``contributed to a climate of impunity
that encouraged further assaults,'' and how ironic it is that
something so benignly termed as a reconciliation process should
be used actually to strip people of their legal rights and a
means of vindicating those rights.
For all Christian groups, government permission is required
to build a new church or repair an existing one, and the
approval process for church construction is time-consuming and
inflexible. Former President Mubarak had the authority to
approve applications for new construction of churches. Although
most of these applications were submitted more than five years
ago, the majority have not received a response. Even some
permits that have been approved cannot, in fact, be acted upon
because of interference by the state security services at both
the local and national levels.
In 2005, former President Mubarak devolved authority to
approve the renovation and reconstruction of churches from the
president to the country's governors. Several years later, some
churches continue to face delays in the issuance of permits.
Even in cases where approval to build or maintain churches has
been granted, many Christians complain that local security
services have prevented construction or repair, in some cases
for many years.
In addition, local security services have been accused of
being complicit in inciting violence against some churches
undergoing routine maintenance or repair. In recent years, the
government repeatedly has pledged, most recently in October of
2011, to adopt a new law that would apply to all places of
worship.
In June, after consulting with religious leaders and other
experts, the SCAF released publicly a draft version of the law.
The draft was criticized widely by Muslims, Christians and
Egyptian human rights groups. While a subsequent version has
not been made public, some reports have indicated that the
revised draft law covers only churches and not other places of
worship.
Now, this is not to say there has been no progress since
the end of the Mubarak regime. To be sure, we have seen some
hopeful developments. Last year, the Grand Sheikh at al-Azhar
began several initiatives expressing support for some aspects
of freedom of religion or belief. In May of last year, the
government began to reopen more than 50 churches that had been
closed, in some cases for years.
Last July, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that
reconverts to Christianity could obtain new national identity
documents indicating their Christianity but not their former
Muslim faith. And following the October violence, the
transitional government took steps to reduce discrimination in
Egypt's penal code.
Yet despite this progress, the bottom line is this: Copts
need to be protected, Copts aren't being protected and Copts
must be protected, along with every other member of Egyptian
society, from attacks on their right to order their lives and
practice their beliefs in dignity and peace.
As long as Copts and other religious minorities aren't
being sufficiently protected, USCIRF will continue to spotlight
the problem and recommend that the U.S. government take strong
action in support of religious freedom. Our recommendations to
the United States government are as follows.
First, the United States should press Egypt to improve
religious freedom conditions, by repealing discriminatory
decrees against religious minorities, removing religion from
official identity documents, abolishing the blasphemy codes and
passing a unified law for the construction and repair of places
of worship.
Second, the United States should urge Egypt's government to
prosecute government-funded clerics, government officials or
any other individuals who incite violence, while disciplining
or dismissing government-funded clerics who preach intolerance
and hatred.
Third, the United States should increase pressure on Egypt
to bring to justice those who have committed violence against
fellow Egyptians on account of their religion.
Fourth, the U.S. Congress should require the departments of
State and Defense to report every 90 days on the Egyptian
government's progress pertaining to religious freedom and
related rights.
Fifth, until genuine progress occurs, USCIRF renews its
call for the United States to designate Egypt a country of
particular concern as one of the world's most serious religious
freedom abusers.
Sixth, if Egypt demonstrates a commitment to progress on
freedom of religion and related rights, the United States
should ensure that a portion of its military aid to Egypt is
used to help Egypt's police implement a plan to enhance
protection for religious minorities, their places of worship
and places where they congregate.
And finally, Washington should press Cairo to ensure that a
new constitution has robust protections for the right to
freedom of religion or belief consistent with international
human rights law, including recognizing the universal right to
the freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief for
every individual and every religious or belief community.
Recognizing that each person's freedom to hold and to manifest
any religion or belief or to not hold any religious belief
should not be limited aside from the narrow exceptions
delineated in international law.
Three, affirming that the right to freedom of religion or
belief includes the right to have, adopt or change one's
religion or belief without coercion and to manifest it publicly
as well as to persuade others to change their beliefs or
affiliations voluntarily.
Ensuring that the rights and benefits of citizenship are
not limited to individuals belonging to particular religious
communities and ensuring that all persons are equal before the
law and are entitled to the equal protection of law regardless
of religion or belief and that guaranteeing all persons equal
and effective protection against discrimination on religious
grounds.
Today, as Egypt confronts the rigors of democratic
transition, will it uphold the rights of Copts and other
religious minorities? The world is watching, the Helsinki
Commission is watching and USCIRF is watching, too. Thank you
again for this opportunity to testify.
Mr. Smith. Dr. Lantos Swett, thank you so very much for
your very eloquent testimony and the large number of
recommendations, insights that you and the Commission have
provided and have done so for since the inception of the
Commission, so thank you for it, especially as its chair, for
taking your tremendous leadership.
I do want to note we've been joined by Robert Aderholt--
Commissioner Aderholt--and I think it's worth nothing and
celebrating that at the most recent OSCE parliamentary
assembly, Mr. Aderholt was elected vice president of the OSCE
PA. So congratulations to you.
Dr. Swett. Congratulations. Thank you so much.
Mr. Smith. And if I could just ask a couple of quick
questions?
Dr. Swett. Yes, of course.
Mr. Smith. I know you're on a tight--just briefly about
the--one of your recommendations is that the--Egypt ought to be
designated as a country of particular concern. By way of
historical reminder, Congressman Frank Wolf's bill, the
International Religious Freedom Act, which was vigorously
opposed by the State Department--John Shattuck, who was then
the assistant secretary for democracy, labor and human rights,
testified before my committee repeatedly against the bill.
But one of the geniuses of that legislation was that it
established this independent voice to speak truth to power
without worrying about the problems that are associated when
you talk to dictatorships or authoritarian regimes which often
muzzles our voice as a country, especially on human rights
issues, and religious freedom being at the top of that list.
You're kind of like the GAO of----
Dr. Swett. Exactly.
Mr. Smith. ----religious freedom.
Dr. Swett. I like that description.
Mr. Smith. And you do a wonderful job.
Dr. Swett. But we don't go on wild trips to Las Vegas, I'm
happy to say. [Chuckles.]
Mr. Smith. But you know, with regards to CPC, if you could
maybe elaborate a bit on the frustration that the Commission
has had with getting the administration to so designate--it's a
two-step--first designate based on what the record is and then
decide what if, if any, of the 18 prescribed remedies or
penalties that can be meted out to a country--in this case
Egypt--might be used. China has been on that list.
Unfortunately, we rarely use any of those sanctions that
are included. But it's important to first get the designation
and then take the second step.
What do we do with that designation?
Secondly, if I could ask you with regards to--you know, you
talked about the reconciliation sessions in your testimony. And
while they sound benign and look like, you know, there's
something good and wholesome about it, they also carry with it
a very dangerous aspect where people who have created heinous
crimes under pressure of a reconciliation session might be
allowed to get away with it, whether it be rape or assault. And
so, what kind of actions are often brought to these
reconciliation sessions.
And thirdly, if you could, I mentioned in my opening about
how hard we worked--Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Wolf, Trent Franks, Kay
Granger, who was the key person as chairwoman of the foreign
ops appropriations committee--to put very specific language
into the foreign ops bill for this year on religious freedom.
It was opposed by the administration. As a matter of fact, it
was very vigorously opposed. And yet, now it's been waived,
just shunted aside as if religious freedom doesn't matter.
And when statements are made about strategic partnership
with Egypt to make it stronger as a democracy, religious
freedom is the first human right. It's at the core of it. If we
won't insist upon it, who will? So if you can speak to that
very briefly.
And then finally, for years when President Mubarak would
come here, I and others would meet with him and I would bring
up two issues every time--the gross abuse of his media to
attack Israel and use caricatures and very, very horrible
statements about--that were anti-Semitic, and the second was
the attack on the Coptic Christian community and church.
But as you point out, there has been a breakdown in
security and a rise of sectarian violence that makes 2011 one
of the worst years for Copts and other minorities. What would
you recommend we do because, you know, we would get a pushback
from Mubarak. He would say, talk to Boutros-Ghali where, who
was always with him when these issues would come up. And we
would give names. We would raise specific instances of violence
against Coptic Christians, burning of churches and the like.
But he at least was responsive to some. What kind of response
are we getting? What would be your recommendation as to with
the SCAF especially and with the president? Are we insisting on
it with this administration? Are they insisting on religious
freedom and protection of Copts?
Dr. Swett. Well, thank you for those excellent questions
and I'll try to address each of them in turn. First, as it
relates to the CPC designation, we share your frustration. It
was a stroke of genius, I believe, that USCIRF was created as
an independent body because we have, if you will, the luxury of
being able to have a
single-minded focus on our mission which is the advancement and
promotion of international religious freedom.
And as such, you know, frankly we believe that we see this
issue with greater clarity. The State Department is always in
the process of weighing various interests. And we understand
that that's a necessity given the magnitude of the issues that
they have to deal with. And yet, it is our firm conviction
that, as you have said so often and so eloquently, religious
freedom is a threshold issue.
And the implications--the broader implications for a
society that fails to provide an environment of robust
protection for tolerance, pluralism and religious freedom are
very grave. The evidence is now out there and it's overwhelming
that the positive correlations for societies that do provide
this kind of religious freedom protection are phenomenal. They
are more stable. They are more prosperous.
They have--the women in those societies have infinitely
higher status, infinitely better circumstances. They are more
democratic. And of course, they are more peaceful. And so, this
is really not a sidebar issue. I would also say that, as you
know, Mr. Chairman, the conduct of a country needs to be
egregious and persistent in order to qualify for that CPC
designation. And we approach our monitoring function at USCIRF
always in a sort of strictly factual way. You know, it's
nothing but the facts, ma'am.
We go in there looking at what are the facts on the ground,
what are the actual circumstances and then we make our
recommendations based on that. And so, you know, all I can say
is that we will continue to forcefully advocate with the State
Department that they take that next step vis-aa-vis Egypt. The
facts, we believe, warrant it. The circumstances warrant it.
And I think the evidence is the country doesn't want to be
designated as a CPC with good reason. And so, you know, when a
country is obviously against their wishes given this badge of
certainly concern, of particular concern, it can serve as a
motivation for them to actually get serious about addressing
the issues. And as you point out, CPC designation is not an
automatic trigger for any particular set of consequences. So
that issue can be viewed sort of as part of a separate
discussion, what are the appropriate sanctions. But we strongly
feel that the CPC designation is warranted.
We feel that it is an important tool to hold up for the
world to see what the practices are of a country and it can be
a tool for, you know, finally forcing a country to get serious
about addressing some of these issues. You brought up the issue
of the reconciliation sessions.
You know, we have had now over the last several decades
societies in which a truth and reconciliation process has
played an enormously valuable role in trying to help societies
that were riven and torn apart in the most profound ways by
war, by apartheid, by, you know, decades of sort of saturated
abuse in the society to find a way to move beyond that. And so,
there are obviously circumstances in which that kind of a
process is very, very appropriate. The situation I think we
have in Egypt that is of concern is that you are really sort of
seeing these reconciliation processes in some instances used
not to try and sort of heal the deep societal-wide wounds but
to bully victims into abandoning their pursuit of justice for
very specific ills done against them by very specific
perpetrators.
And that's clearly a perversion and an abuse of a process
and sort of putting a very attractive and appealing name on a
process which we feel feeds into the culture of impunity. As
you know, in my remarks I address that that's sort of the
overarching problem, if we want to put a big tag on what we
feel lies at the heart of religious freedom in Egypt. It's this
impunity, this culture of impunity created by government
policies and by government lack of vindication of the rights of
their citizens.
And so in that context, this reconciliation process is
another piece of that impunity problem. You know, you mention
the specific language that you had battled so hard to get into
the foreign operations bill. And I don't, you know, know that I
have huge insight to bring to bear on that. I do know that it
is important from the perspective of USCIRF that whether it's
the president, whether it's the State Department, we want to
see more than inconsequential lip service to the issues of
religious freedom.
You know, nobody is going to stand up and speak out against
religious freedom. And we can all go to the record and find,
you know, well-meaning and moving words spoken. But there needs
to be more than that. And there needs to be a prioritization of
religious freedom. I don't need to tell you, you know better
than I do, that religious freedom is really implicated in some
of our nation's greatest challenges right now, including some
of the national security threats that we face.
Again, societies where robust religious freedom is a
reality tend not to be societies where the sort of violent
religious extremism takes root that can then visit our shores
in the form of terrorism and can implicate our national
security interests around the globe. So it's not a minor issue.
It's not a nice sidebar topic that makes us all feel good and
we can kind of, you know, smile and say nice words. This goes
to the heart not only of American values but of American
security in the world. And so in that sense, you know, we would
obviously be advocating for our State Department and this
administration and the Congress to ensure that religious
freedom is central to the way we approach our dealings with
foreign countries.
And finally, you know, it's interesting the last issue you
brought up were your meetings with Mubarak and how you would
bring up two issues--the treatment of the Copts and the use of
official media to spew out, you know, vitriolic and vile anti-
Semitism and Holocaust denial.
Just earlier today--and I'm now going to momentarily put on
a different hat. As you mentioned, I'm the president of the
Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. And one of our
first acts after establishing the foundation following my
father's passing was the creation of the Lantos Archives on
Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial, a collaborative project
that we do with the Middle East Media Research Institute.
And that archive documents on an annual basis the degree to
which so much of the media, the preaching, the teaching, the
public discourse in much of the Arabic world, the Muslim world,
the Farsi-speaking world is saturated with a degree of overt
and vitriolic and hateful anti-Semitism that I really think
would make most people's hair stand on end if they were to be
exposed to it. and part of what we try to do through the
archives is bridge the language gap because when these examples
take place in a language not easily understood, you know, it's
easy for it to pass under the radar screen.
And so, one of the goals of the Lantos Archives is bridge
that language gap, bring to the attention of policymakers like
you, the media, educators, thought leaders what's really going
on because we do believe that shining a bright light on that is
at least one step that we can take. But again, the quality of a
culture--what is the language that is accepted, that is put
forward, that is out there, what are the sorts of slurs against
religious communities, against the Copts, against the Jews that
are accepted as just part of the normal discourse.
Unless we change the fundamental nature of what is
acceptable in these countries around the world, we cannot get
at some of the deep, deep, intransigent problems that need to
be solved for, you know, the peace and stability of the whole
world. And so, I commend you for raising these issues. I think
we need to be more vigilant as ever as we see Egypt and other
countries attempting to make a transition to more democratic
rule.
Democracy can have a big hole in the heart if it is not
accompanied by rigorous, vigorous, constitutional protections
for the sorts of fundamental human rights that we take so for
granted in this country. And in that regard, I'll also mention
that another initiative that USCIRF has been involved with is a
study of constitutional reform processes and trying to, you
know, provide some help and some insight to many of the
countries in the Middle East that are now in the process of
drafting new constitutions.
And we know that those constitutions won't look exactly
like ours, although unlike some people in public life I think
our Constitution is not a bad example to hold up around the
world. It's done a pretty good job for this great country for
more than 200 years. But democracy must be accompanied by
strong and honored constitutional protections for fundamental
rights. Otherwise, democracy can easily degenerate into the
most dangerous sort of mobocracy.
Mr. Smith. Dr. Lantos Swett, thank you so very much. I
yield to the good friend and colleague, Commissioner Aderholt.
HON. ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY
AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Aderholt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I'm going to
have to slip out shortly. But I do have some questions I'd like
to submit. I'd like unanimous consent to submit those for the
record. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your testimony.
Dr. Swett. Thank you.
Mr. Aderholt. This issue regarding Coptics has been an
issue that I've followed for over a decade now. One thing that
I do want to--I would like to get your opinion on and just your
thoughts--when it comes to the severity of the issue that we're
here discussing today, what do you think are some of the key
issues or perceptions that--so many in the international
community from understanding really what the problem really is
and why they have not acted more strongly on the issue?
Dr. Swett. Specifically on the issue of religious freedom
or--
Mr. Aderholt. Or--and minority women, but just in general.
Dr. Swett. Well, you know, I think that for many years
there was sort of this notion that that world of religious
belief and religious freedom related to kind of an older period
in human history and that as we move forward into the modern
world, some of those old, old notions of what's important fall
away. And I think if recent world events have shown us
anything, they have shown us how untrue that is.
Societies that protect these fundamental rights of belief
and conscience--and sometimes those take the form of religious
beliefs but not always--sometimes that takes the form of the
freedom not to believe. Societies that are vigorous in
protecting people's ability to express their transcendent
views, their views about that which is transcendent in life, in
fact are the societies that are the best equipped to deal with
the many challenges that we face.
But I do think that you're right. There has been a certain
resistance to embracing the advocacy of these issues other than
in sort of a sidebar rhetorical sense. But as I say, you know,
I'm really very encouraged by some of the new, you know, very
concrete research and social science evidence that is coming
forward to show the correlation and the interrelation between
protecting some of these most fundamental rights and building
successful, prosperous, stable, tolerant societies.
And so, you know, we take some comfort from that and hope
that as, in a way, science and faith and practice and tradition
come together, there will be a more vigorous community out
there ready to stand up in defense of these most fundamental
rights. They cannot be ignored. They cannot be set aside. They
cannot be dismissed as sort of relics of another era. They are
at the heart of how we build a decent and a safe world going
forward. And you know, that is certainly central to the mission
of USCIRF and something that we're very passionate about.
Mr. Aderholt. Thank you. And you know, just going back to
the fact that a lot of people I think are not even sure
exactly--it's not really focused on some of the human rights
issue about what the Coptics are all about and how some of the
issues that they have to deal with. So again, I apologize for
having to slip out. But like I said, I do have some questions
for the record I would like to submit. So thank you very much.
Dr. Swett. Thank you for your question.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Commissioner Aderholt. And
thank you, Dr. Lantos Swett, for your testimony, your insights
and recommendations. And thank you.
Dr. Swett. Thank you for having me and thank you for
holding this very important hearing.
Mr. Smith. I'd like to now welcome our second panel to the
witness table, beginning first with Michele Clark, an adjunct
professor at the George Washington University's Elliott School
of International Affairs. She's an internationally renowned
expert on human trafficking. Ms. Clark was appointed director
of the Anti-Trafficking Assistance Unit at the OSCE in 2005 and
developed the groundbreaking publication ``Working Papers on
Combatting Trafficking in the OSCE Region.''
She has received multiple awards and fellowships in
recognition of her remarkable anti-trafficking work. And just
several months ago was here before this Commission with some
groundbreaking testimony, insights into the abduction of Coptic
girls in Egypt, really laid out a challenge for us and
especially for the executive branch. And I look forward to
hearing what she has found since and she will explain that of
course in her testimony.
We'll then hear from Dr. Phares--Walid Phares--who is a
professor at the National Defense University and he serves as
an advisor to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus and co-secretary
general for the Transatlantic Legislative Group on
Counterterrorism. Now, Dr. Phares frequently testifies before
the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament and the United
Nations Security Council on matters pertaining to international
security. In addition, he provides expertise for a variety of
domestic and international media sources and has published
several books, including his most recent, ``The Coming
Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East.''
Then, our next witness, and we will just call her Anne, is
a victim and needs to maintain anonymity for the safety of her
family, who are still in Egypt. She is a Coptic Christian woman
but recently obtained asylum here in the United States based on
an attempted abduction that she endured while in Egypt. I would
ask that each of you respect her privacy and not attempt to
photograph her, even though she is behind us. We do have
Capitol Police on hand to ensure that there are no
disturbances. Her words will be translated by Carolyn Doss, who
has been here before. And I thank her for that translation. If
we could go first to Michele Clark and then to Dr. Phares?
MICHELE CLARK, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, ELLIOTT SCHOOL OF
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a real honor to be
invited to testify once more. Thank you. It's an honor to be
invited to testify once more on this most important issue of
the disappearances, forced conversions and forced marriages of
Coptic women and girls. I'd like to express my thanks to the
Commission for holding this hearing and for launching our new
report. It's a real honor that you've accorded us.
I would also like to express my appreciation and my thanks
to Dr. John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International for
championing this issue and sponsoring the research and writing
of the report. I would also like to express my thanks to my
coauthor, Nadia Ghaly, for her invaluable collaboration. She's
not able to be with us today. I have submitted written
testimony along with the newly released report and would like
these to be included in the permanent record of the hearings.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, your full statement and that
of Dr. Walid and all statements will be made a part of the
record.
Ms. Clark. Thank you. My introductory remarks will be
brief, highlighting the principle conclusions and
recommendations. But I'd also like to address some of the
challenges raised by individuals and organizations who would
seek to downplay the seriousness of the issue. First, a little
bit of context and then the challenges. This report builds upon
our previous work from 2009 in which we documented the
disappearances of Coptic women and girl. Many were lured into
false relationships through fraudulent means or forcible
abductions.
These women were coerced into converting to Islam and
married to their abductors against their wills. Our report was
based on interviews with women who had been abducted, the
lawyers who represented them and family members of women who
had not yet returned.
But the report was greeted with some mixed response. We're
grateful to you and to this Commission, which one year ago, as
you mentioned, sponsored a hearing on this important topic to
raise the visibility of violence against the Coptic women in
Egypt. Other U.S. government bodies were not so receptive. In
2010, the Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons
referenced our study in their annual report although referring
to our findings as allegations.
Findings of our current report were not referenced in the
2012 TIP report. The 2010 Department of State's International
Religious Freedom Report also refers to our work, once again
using the word allegation.
There have been some interesting traction in other areas.
And for the first time, we're beginning to see stories in the
mainstream media. In 2010, just before the Christmas holidays,
the BBC aired a documentary film on attacks against Christian
minorities in Europe, featuring a family whose daughter had
been abducted. They based their research in large part on our
first report. In July 2011, the New York Review of Books
featured an article by journalist and writer Yasmin el-Rashdi
referencing the disappearance of Coptic girls. And in October
2011, the European Parliament issued a statement condemning
violence against the Copts in Egypt and expressed particular
concern about girls who have been kidnapped and forced to
convert. So we're seeing a little bit of--a little bit of
positive response.
So why doesn't the issue have more traction? Mr. Aderholt
asked a very important question. I'd like to talk about this
just a little bit before I get into the finding of the reports.
I've been, as you say, in the anti-trafficking world for a long
time and there are many parallels. We know enough now from
years of studying recruitment strategies of human traffickers
that one main way of luring young women into an exploitative
relationship is under the guise of a romantic partnership. We
also know that if a marriage is forced, it sets up a
controlling and coercive environment which can be nothing short
of exploitative.
Claims that all disappearances are the result of impulsive
behavior reflect a deep and potentially dangerous
misunderstanding of the use of force, fraud and coercion that
are characteristics of the relationships between the young
Coptic girls and their captors. Both my coauthor Nadia Ghaly
and I recognize that not all disappearances are the results of
abduction. Not all marriages are forced. But, and
notwithstanding the ambiguity of many situations we
encountered, we claim that it's not possible to dismiss each
case in our 2009 report on the grounds that girls willingly
left their families. We will contend the same thing for the
report that we present to you today. These are not all cases of
romance gone bad.
So concerned with the escalating violence against Copts in
Egypt and dissatisfied with the lack of response from the U.S.
government, Christian Solidarity International commissioned a
second report which we are launching here today.
This new report substantiates our earlier findings. In
addition, we have observed changes in trends and patterns which
reinforce the premeditation of captors. The goal of this report
is straightforward--to continue to support the claims of
disappearances, abductions, forced conversions and forced
marriages of Coptic women in Egypt and to continue to challenge
the use of the term ``allegation'' in U.S. government reports.
So how did we get our information? Well, the findings are
based on several key factors. First of all, we interviewed four
Egyptian lawyers who provided us access to claims filed on
behalf of Coptic women who had disappeared as well as young
women who had returned from a forced marriage and conversion
and were attempting to regain their Christian identities. As
we've already heard, the withholding of one's original religion
is a repetitive pattern.
We also interviewed representatives of civil society
organizations. We spoke with family members of young women who
have disappeared. Some of these individuals were represented by
attorneys. Many cannot afford an attorney and therefore come
themselves. We reviewed Internet sites reporting disappearances
of Coptic girls but we considered only those cases with
appropriate documentation, especially police reports. And we
interviewed women who have returned from forced marriage and
conversion.
All of our interviews were conducted from November 16th
through November 25th, 2011, in and around Cairo, Egypt. Only
verifiable cases are included in our report. Each of these
cases is verifiable through attorneys' files, personal
interviews and police reports. The names of young women and
their family members and other identifying details are not
published to protect their identities.
So what did we find that was a little bit different? We
went in not quite knowing. We wanted to see if the political
climate had changed anything. We wanted to see if the two years
since our previous report had affected the situation in any
way. We noticed some similarities and some marked differences.
The first key finding is that the number of disappearances
and abductions appear to be increasing. Each of the attorneys
that we interviewed for this report indicated an increase in
his caseload since January 2011. Four attorneys collectively
reported a total of over 550 cases of abductions,
disappearances and petitions to restore Christian identity
following abductions, forced marriages and forced conversions
over a five-year period. Furthermore, one attorney interviewed
for this report indicates firsthand knowledge of over 1,600
cases of Christians petitioning to have their conversions to
Islam overturned in recent years. Sixty percent--over 900
women--900 of these cases are women.
Data collection, as in the trafficking world, remains a
challenge. There is no systematic data repository within the
Coptic community documenting the disappearances of young women.
Priests or bishops keep records of activities within their
churches and communities sometimes. Attorneys maintain their
own caseloads. Activists maintain different websites but there
is no cross-referencing with other data sources.
Furthermore, families of victims don't report all cases.
The police do not register all complaints filed by family
members. In many cases, family members of missing young women
reported that police would not file a report until a lawyer
intervened. In other cases, families don't file reports because
they don't believe the claims will be taken seriously or
because they fear retribution by the authorities. Not all
families are financially able to secure the services of an
attorney, and while not a guarantee of result, at least the
presence of an attorney enables the filing of a legitimate
claim. We personally spoke to family members who would go to up
to five or six different police stations before some police
officer would finally agree to file a claim. These were
dismissed for all of the reasons that we've mentioned above.
We're also noting that fewer girls appear to be returning
to their families. Our 2009 report focused on young women who
had returned from forced marriages and conversion and were
struggling to regain her Christian identities. They report
instances of abuse and forced domestic servitude. One woman
reported being prostituted by her captor. Since then, there has
been a discernible change in the dynamics of the disappearances
of young Coptic women. Attorneys handling such cases report
that fewer women are being returned to their families. There is
speculation that the young women might be trafficked overseas
but attorneys and activists have not yet been able to document
this finding and we recommend that this trend be followed more
seriously.
We note that increasingly social media is being used to
inform families about their daughters' conversion. One mother
we spoke to told us that after looking for over six months to
find news of her daughter, she happened to stumble upon a
videotape of her announcing her conversion on a website of new
converts to Islam.
Another deeply disturbing finding is that minors and
mothers of young children are being targeted--are being
increasingly targeted. In addition to disappearances of single
young women over the age of 18, lawyers report an increase in
the abductions of mothers with young children. While the age of
consent to convert to a different religion is 18 in Egypt,
there are increasing reports that children of mothers who are
forced to convert are also subsequently registered as Muslim.
Even if a mother returns to her community, the children are
considered by law to be Muslim and will remain Muslim. So in
forcibly converting one young woman, all of her children will
be automatically considered Muslim as well.
The disappearances are organized and planned. We've seen
this before but we've received more corroborating evidence.
Attorneys, social workers and members of the clergy interviewed
for this and the previous report all attest to organized and
systematic planning in the cases of missing Coptic women.
Tactics to lure young women into relationships follow similar
patterns. One lawyer interviewed for this report stated that
the same man's name occurred in multiple police reports. He
married five Christian women who subsequently were forced to
convert to Islam. So he would marry one, take her away, go
back, work on another, get her converted, go back, work on
another and systematically pursue a number of forced
conversions. Family members report that their daughters or
sisters were befriended by a schoolmate, a neighbor or another
mother--an older mother figure over time.
Lawyers indicate that their clients benefitted materially.
Frequently, family members were provided with new apartments or
furniture, and unemployable young men were given jobs among the
abductor families.
Abductors target vulnerable women and girls, and girls in
vulnerable and unprotected moments. The concluding observations
of the U.N.'s Commission on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women for Egypt expressed concern at the
very limited information and statistics provided about
vulnerable groups of women in Egypt. Certainly, Coptic women
and girls are vulnerable in many ways. They are members of a
religious minority. They come from closed, insular communities.
Their minority status is the basis for legal and social
discrimination.
Captors sever contact between victims and their families.
The first task of the captor is to come between a young woman
and members of her family. They can do this by force, by taking
away her phone, by denying her any contact with her relatives.
They lock her up. They deny her mobility. They threaten her,
telling her that if she runs away, her family will never accept
her, that they will punish her, that they will put her in a
monastery.
Eventually a young woman is brainwashed and believes that
she will be safe only with her Muslim captor. Ultimately, she
will be truly safe only if she converts to Islam. There is no
obligation for a Christian woman who marries a Muslim man to
convert to Islam. So many attorneys claim that this conversion
is the ultimate goal of captivity.
Captors make use of measures involving force, fraud and
coercion. A young woman consents to a glass of sugarcane juice
and the attention of a man whose words promise a life of love,
ease and provision. Another woman shares a drink of water with
a woman--with another mother who is also waiting for children
after school. A third seeks friendship and escape from a harsh
and sometimes abusive home environment.
Victims who have not literally been abducted nevertheless
did not consent to being ripped from their family without ever
seeing them again. They did not consent to being forcibly
converted to a religion other than their own. They do not
consent to a life of captivity within one small apartment,
every outing supervised by a member of her new husband's
family. They said yes to the things that young women say yes
to. They say yes to friendship, to romance, to hope, a future,
safety and security. It is reasonable to accept that most young
women would respond in precisely the same way as many Coptic
girls responded to these offers of friendship and romance which
proved to be highly destructive of their own lives.
Now, about our recommendations, in developing these
recommendations for this report, we consulted with attorneys
and civil society actors in Egypt in order to assess what
government actions might support their efforts to protect
Coptic women from falling into captivity and, as a result, into
forced marriages and conversions. There was considerable
consensus among those that we spoke to.
First, they would request that local police stations will
take seriously and file all reports on all claims of
disappearance of Coptic women and girls and that all claims
will be investigated and family members kept appraised of the
progress of each of these cases.
The Egyptian national government will request an annual
accounting of all cases of disappearances including open and
ongoing cases as well as any prosecutions that resulted from
these local investigations.
The Egyptian government will create a registry to document
the disappearance of minors. Children of parents who convert
will retain the religion of their birth until they are 18 years
old. Laws which penalize discrimination based on religion in
the areas of education, employment and the media will be
enacted.
To the Coptic Church, the activists would like to suggest
that the church maintain a central registry documenting
instances of disappearance, abductions and forced marriages and
conversions that is laid out according to a rigorous
methodology which can document the instances without
sensationalism.
The Coptic community will educate families and young women
on the recruitment and deception patterns that lead to
captivity. And for the international community, the
recommendations are that a legal defense fund will be created
to enable Coptic families to secure the presence of an
attorney, which as we indicated is frequently the only way to
get a case legally registered as a disappearance. International
or national agencies assessing the situation of Coptic women in
Egypt will recognize that coercion and fraud are represented in
most cases of disappearance, forced marriages and forced
conversion, all of which obviate the consent of the victim.
And finally, my last--the recommendation that ended my last
testimony to you, Mr. Chairman, that international
organizations and our government will recognize both the scope
and the scale of the problem and no longer refer to such cases
as allegations. I don't think that anyone will refer to the
witness who we'll hear later as an allegation.
Mr. Chairman, and members of the Commission, I thank you
for your time and interest in this very important matter. I
look forward to answering your questions.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Clark, thank you so very much for your
incisive testimony, for undertaking this extraordinary human
rights project, to report, to investigate and for doing it
yourself. So thank you so much for the bravery that that surely
exhibits. Dr. Phares, please proceed.
DR. WALID PHARES, CO-SECRETARY GENERAL, THE TRANSATLANTIC
LEGISLATIVE GROUP ON COUNTERTERRORISM
Dr. Phares. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, members of the
Commission, I would like to thank you very much for extending
this invitation to me to address this very dramatic issue of
persecution and of abduction of girls and women in the Coptic
community in Egypt. I have titled my paper, my presentation as
``The Strategy of Subduing a Community by Terrorizing its
Women.'' And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for including the full
text of my testimony in the records. What I would like to do
for the sake of time is to summarize the following.
First, from a strategic perspective, what are the findings
of our colleagues. This year and last year in this body, in
Congress and also in the European Parliament, if I may, have
been telling us what are the major points that we can respond
to. From there, I'd like to ask five questions and answer them.
That would allow the Commission and therefore members of
Congress and our government in general terms to respond to the
challenge.
The violence against Coptic women in Egypt, as many experts
have already testified before this prestigious forum over the
past few years, and last year in particular, these acts of
violence against Egyptian Coptic women both individually and
collectively have been unrelenting, repetitive and directed
almost exclusively at young, single women and who are at the
age of marriage or just about.
This violence, which is described in several reports
already submitted to your Commission, to the Congress in
general, to other legislative bodies around the world, have--
can be summarized as follows.
A, the attacks have been ongoing for more than three
decades, with peaks in some years.
B, the victims have primarily been young Christian women.
C, Egyptian security and judicial authorities have not
helped in general terms the families of these girls and have
not actually conducted an investigation, a thorough national
investigation of who is that network in Egypt that basically
has been perpetrating those attacks for the last five years at
least documented.
D, an overwhelming majority of the kidnappings and violence
have been carried out by individuals and groups who claim to be
acting on their ideology, on behalf of their ideology, a
doctrine, a set of fundamental beliefs known as Salafism or
Jihadism which they claim is the strict implementation of
sharia laws.
E, an overwhelming majority of these crimes have been
dismissed by government security and justice institutions, and
the radical factions have been protecting many of these
perpetrators, assigning essentially blame to the female victims
and their families.
F, violence against young Christian women in Egypt has
continued after the downfall of the previous regime, and
formation of the current alternative government and its
institutions.
These findings, Mr. Chairman, prompt the following
questions, five of them.
One, have the attacks been widespread and consistent over
time, so that we can deal with the argument of this is just a
reaction to a love affair or a social situation gone bad? Is
the history of these attacks reflective of the legal and
security status of the Coptic Christian community at large?
Two, is the violence committed by an organized movement or
by individuals who claim to be acting on behalf of an
ideological movement?
Three, does the attitude of government security, judicial
and political institutions reflect cooperation with the
attackers, or just neglect for the protection of a segment of
Egyptian society?
Four, what are the consequences of the continuous attacks
against Coptic females, and thus the Coptic community, despite
the regime change of government change and rise of new
institutions in Egypt, which I feel is a key element in our
discussion today.
And five, what can and should the United States government,
specifically the administration, do to put an end to these
violent practices against the women of the Christian Coptic
community?
Answering those questions or attempting to do so will equip
members of the Commission and thus of Congress with the
perspective needed to understand the exact nature of the crisis
and make informed recommendations regarding possible new
legislation and alternative policies for adoption by the
executive branch.
Point number one, the nature of these attacks--according to
prior research submitted to your Commission and to other
congressional committees, targeted attacks against Coptic
Christian women are not unrelated and isolated acts of
violence.
On the contrary, kidnapping and forcing captive women to
convert to Islam has been documented for decades, revealing
hundreds of victims each year. Research and Coptic sources
claim that violence against Coptic women has been practiced
since even before the rise of modern Egypt. But current
research is confirming that this abuse was documented for at
least the last half a decade, or decade, especially in the last
five or three years. Therefore, the first characteristic of the
crisis is its longstanding history.
This means that any solution to the problem must address
its historical roots and scope of the violence. This violence
against Coptic females took place before and after the Arab
Spring, before and after 9/11, before and after the end of the
Cold War and before and after World War II. We are dealing with
a threat that has the dimension of an attitude by either a
movement or an ideology with regard to the Coptic community.
Now, with regard to the perpetrators, while research over
the past five years, I must admit, has not revealed a well-
designed structure that openly and officially takes
responsibility for these attacks against Coptic Christian
women, it has shown, however, patterns and statements that
indicate the existence of a movement that hails from a well-
publicized ideology, namely, Salafist, namely Islamist
fundamentalists, or also known as Jihadism.
In almost all cases, Mr. Chairman, the kidnappers argued
that their actions were legitimized and inspired by Salafist
and jihadist principles. One central tenet that most of my
colleagues have mentioned already this year and last year, one
central tenet of those principles is that individuals--in this
case, females--who convert from Christianity to Islam cannot
revert back to their original religion, must accept their,
quote, unquote, ``forced marriages,'' and in some cases,
families of the victims were asked to pay a tribute to recover
their daughters.
The reference to jihadist views, applicable to Christian
Copts in general and women and girls in particular, shows that
the acts perpetrated against them and their communities are
ideologically and politically motivated.
Government failure and collaboration--we also detected that
based on reports by human rights groups as well as the Coptic
community and liberal Egyptian NGOs, that local Egyptian police
and security forces, national security agencies, including the
now-gone state security agency Amn al-Dawla, are or were either
covering up the attacks, or protecting the perpetrators.
Therefore, when we look at the historical timeline of
security collaboration with the perpetrators or, at a minimum,
non-support of the victims and their families, this coincides
as well with the timeline of similar aggressive behavior
against the community as a whole. Coptic activists and NGOs--
including the Washington, D.C.-based Coptic Solidarity
International--have accused Egyptian security services under
the Mubarak regime of using Salafists to conduct attacks
against Coptic targets to maintain the community under the
protection of the government.
Coptic and liberal Egyptian NGOs have argued that the new
security agencies formed after the collapse of the Mubarak
regime, after the latest legislative elections, continue to
allow these practices or help the perpetrators.
Consequences of attacks against Coptic women, which I
consider one of the most important key analyses in our
discussion--if the aggression targeting Christian Coptic women
continues and widens, without a determined and aggressive
intervention by the Egyptian government to put an end to this
practice, there will be serious consequences on Egyptian
Christian women, their own communities--Christian Coptic
community--but also on Egyptian women in general, leading to a
weakening of civil society and a dramatic setback to freedom,
to human rights and democracy in Egypt.
The chief consequence of unchecked aggressions against
Coptic women and the terror--is basically the terror it is
instilling in the hearts of Christian women who count for at
least half of the 15 or so million Christian Copts in Egypt.
The hundreds of repetitive attacks against Coptic women send a
clear signal to millions of young women in Egypt who feel
targeted by the jihadists and Salafists, compelling them to
limit their movement, to narrow their social circles and to
separate them from Muslim communities.
So violence against Coptic women leads to a de facto gender
apartheid in Egypt, where Christian women will be increasingly
deterred from finding jobs, from expressing their opinion, from
wearing their own preferred outfits and circulating in public
spaces.
The effects on Coptic women will also extend to the entire
Christian community as half of its members are increasingly
intimidated by acts of violence committed on hundreds of young
women. When one segment of community is terrorized, it
reverberates throughout their families and communities, forcing
the collective into mental ghettos and therefore emigration.
Rape, abduction and forced conversion are among the root
causes of a general sentiment among Copts that pushes thousands
of them to flee the country--the country of their ancestors.
Outside the community, the attacks against Coptic Christian
women and their results will bring other consequences, Mr.
Chairman, to bear on secular Egyptian women in general, meaning
Muslim secular Egyptian women in general, both liberal and
conservative.
By failing to protect its Coptic citizens, the Egyptian
government will be perceived as incapable of protecting other
segments of the population also targeted by the Salafists and
the jihadists.
Muslim liberal and secular women, who already fear the
strict implementation and enforcement of the jihadi-viewed
sharia law, will be under increased pressures by the most
extreme elements of the Islamist movement to wear the hijab and
later, the full niqab. The attacks on defenseless Coptic women
are a mere prelude to a wider campaign to impose its
ideological agenda, clearly seen in the Salafist movement as
early as 2011.
The role of the U.S. government, finally--the United States
government has an international responsibility in addressing
the situation in the same way our U.S. foreign policy has
addressed mass scale abuse of human rights around the globe for
the last 20 to 30 years. We recommend for the Helsinki
Commission to adopt the following steps as a way to help
protect Coptic women and girls in Egypt from abuse, and defend
their universal rights.
One, reaffirm the conditions on global U.S. foreign aid to
Egypt, despite all the debate that has been taking place in
Washington about it, of a constitutional provision announced by
the drafters of the new Egyptian constitution, that the
practices of abducting, torturing and forcing conversions on
Coptic women or any element of society is a terrorist act which
is punishable by law. This is not an infringement of their
liberties. It is a terrorist act. Kidnapping in Colombia is a
terrorist act. Kidnapping in any part of the world is a
terrorist act.
Two, make a congressional declaration that crimes against
Coptic women inspired by extremist ideologies targeting
communities will be considered crimes against humanity
punishable under international law. There are no differences
between rape and aggression against women in Egypt and what
happened in Yugoslavia or in Bosnia or in Kosovo.
Three, partner with Coptic and civil society NGOs,
extending financial support directly to these entities as part
of the global U.S. aid to Egypt. If you want to send foreign
aid to Egypt, if you want to send hundreds of millions of
dollars, we also need to earmark part of that air to the NGOs
that are representative of the weakest elements of the Egyptian
society, that will be women and minorities.
Four, ensure that the educational and informational system
in Egypt, particularly state-supported institutions, which we
are funding, by the way, isn't used to propagate the ideology
or precepts used by the perpetrators of the attacks as a way to
legitimize violence and discrimination against Coptic women and
encourage acts of violence against them.
Mr. Chairman, what happened in the classroom in Egypt is
the beginning of the process of the development of a radical
educational and also cultural policy that ends up convincing
the perpetrators that what they are doing is the right thing to
do. So we need to also be sure that educational and
informational systems in Egypt are reformed--are adapted to
international standards of human rights.
And lastly, number five is to conduct an international
investigation. It would be U.S.-led, and I'm sure that the
European government would be very interested in joining. But an
international investigation of this mass abuse of human rights
that is targeting a segment of an Egyptian society, because we
cannot rely on the Egyptian justice system at this point in
time. We could help that justice system. We could equip them
with advisers. We could begin by sending a commission to Egypt
to begin that investigation.
I would end by saying that the current situation in Egypt
presents us with a historic opportunity. Now that elections
have taken place, now that a president has been elected, it is
very important to our administration, to our executive power to
engage in a discussion--in an open discussion, not in a
discreet discussion.
The perpetrators in Egypt must know from the media, from
public discussion that our officials are demanding from the
president of Egypt, are demanding from the future elected or
the current parliament that these issues would be at the table,
that the constitutional committee that is looking at the future
constitution will take consideration of these elements. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, members.
Mr. Smith. Dr. Phares, thank you very much for your
extensive testimony and your leadership for so long on these
issues. I'd like to now ask a woman who has been victimized by
abduction--as I indicated earlier, recently got asylum here in
the United States. And as we all know, getting asylum is no
easy business. There needs to be proof. An administrative law
judge needs to be convinced. There is a whole process that
needs to be followed. Her information seems to be absolutely
credible. So we welcome her to the Commission and ask her if
she would now proceed.
``ANNE,'' A COPTIC CHRISTIAN FROM EGYPT AND ATTEMPTED KIDNAP
VICTIM
Ms. Anne. [Via interpreter.] I am a Coptic Christian from
Egypt, from Alexandria, and on January 5th, 2011, I was at my
mother's and it was about 7 p.m. at night. I had left my
mother's home and I was carrying my daughter because she was
asleep.
I was getting onto a microbus and when I had taken the
first step, I felt myself falling backwards onto my back. I
didn't know what was going on. All I felt was that someone was
picking me up off the ground. I was asking him, what do you
want, what are you doing. And he said, you're coming with me.
You're going to get into this taxi. I didn't know what to do. I
was just trying to hold on to my daughter because I was afraid
she would fall. I was screaming. I didn't know what he wanted.
I had no idea why he was doing this.
People started to look and wondering what was happening and
he just started yelling, this is no one's concern, she's an
enemy of Islam, this is no one's concern, she's an enemy of
Islam. I didn't know what to do. He was dragging me and people
were just watching. And then he got me to the taxi. He kept
trying to shove me into the taxi by holding me from the back of
my head. I kept trying to resist and push back but he just kept
trying to shove me into the taxi by holding me from the back of
the neck.
As he was trying to shove me into the car, my daughter's
eye hit the corner of the door of the taxi. I didn't know what
to do. She was screaming. I didn't know how to fight back. I
wasn't sure what I should do. Suddenly, the guard from my
mother's building started hitting him and he pulled me away
from him. The guy jumped into the taxi. There was a driver in
there and they drove away. The man who helped me was only
concerned about helping me and taking care of me.
He took me back to the home. I was crying. I couldn't
process what had just happened. I couldn't understand why did
this happen, what just happened to me. My daughter was crying.
I looked and I noticed that her eye was red and it started to
swell. The man who saved me hit the intercom button and called
my parents down. My parents came down and saw me in a
hysterical state. He called my husband and told him to come
immediately. He came and he took us both to the hospital. When
we got to the emergency room, they told us not to worry. It was
just a superficial injury and they gave us some medication to
treat the injury and then we started home.
On the way home, I started to feel terrible pain. I was in
my second month of pregnancy and I started to feel like I was
bleeding. My mother contacted the doctor and he told her to
have me come to the clinic immediately. My mother took my
daughter home and my father, my husband and I went directly to
the clinic. The doctor there informed me that I had miscarried
and I had to perform a procedure to remove the baby.
They performed the procedure for me and after that I
returned home with my father and my husband. I was in a very
bad emotional state as was my daughter. I was terrified. I was
terrified from everything. I was afraid to leave the house. I
was even afraid to hear the doorbell ring. I kept asking myself
what if this man hadn't saved me, where would I be now, what
would have happened to my daughter.
Until today, when I think about it, I thank God that I was
saved. But then I wonder about the others that weren't saved,
what happened to them. I try and imagine what about those
people, what about the others, the other victims. I'm here
today so I can tell you what happened to me. I try and imagine
and think what would--where would I be, where would my daughter
be, would I ever have seen my husband again, my family again.
We live in Egypt and we experience a lot of persecution.
But we try and live with it. But the deaths and the
kidnappings, that is too difficult to bear. For a child to live
without a mother or a mother to live without her child, what
did they do, what did they do to deserve this. What would have
happened to my father? What would have happened to my husband?
They take women because they know the shame that it will bring
to the family. How can they survive? Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for bravely coming here and
telling us of what is an absolutely gut-wrenching and terrible
experience. And I think you help to bring for all of us what it
was like to be in the beginning stages of an abduction. We know
others who have been abducted for long periods of time. Michele
Clark has spoken often about that, especially in previous
testimonies. So thank you so much for your courageous witness
before this Commission today.
I would like to ask a few questions of our witnesses,
beginning first with Dr. Phares. The name of your testimony,
the headline, the title of ``The Strategy of Subduing a
Community by Terrorizing its Women,''--we just heard a
terrorized woman talk about how being a victim has the
potential of bringing shame to herself and to the family which
I think is precisely and the absolutely wrong way of looking at
it.
But be that as it may, I would argue, and I know you would
agree, that this kind of terrible targeting of women,
terrorizing women brings shame not only to those who engage in
this barbaric behavior but also those who enable it by
indifference, by their silence, by their looking askance,
looking the other way.
And I want to ask you--and I mean this very sincerely and I
hope if you have information, we will write--I will write a
letter asking if this was brought up. Before I get to that,
after our first hearing, when Michele Clark testified and told
us it is no longer a case of saying these are allegations but
these are facts on the ground that women are being abducted,
they are being forced into marriages, they are being abused.
This is a despicable treatment of women. And it's not just an
allegation. It needs to be really combatted. And it needs more
chronicling.
Certainly the United States government has the
capabilities, the wherewithal and the knowledge as to how to do
it. In direct response to that testimony, Congressman Frank
Wolf put your statements, Ms. Clark, in the hands of Anne
Patterson, who was actually meeting with him right upstairs in
this office--his office. And I put it in the hands of Michael
Posner, the assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and
labor.
I would ask you, if you could, do you have any knowledge as
to whether or not Assistant Secretary Michael Posner has done
anything with this damaging information? I would point out for
the record so there's absolute clarity on this, when we had a
phone videoconference with Anne Patterson, I asked her directly
with others sitting there listening as to whether or not she
had acted upon this terrible human right abuse being meted out
on women in Egypt and whether or not, you know, we had deployed
Foreign Service officers, the human rights person in the
embassy to follow-up and to look into this and do their own
report.
You have gone to Egypt, Ms. Clark. You took time out of
your schedule to do this. We have people on the ground who are
eminently capable and knowledgeable and know how to do this
kind of reporting. And Ms. Patterson told me-- Ambassador
Patterson--no, she had not gotten around to it. And we had a
very spirited exchange. I asked her to do it. To date, I know
of no investigation undertaken by the U.S. embassy in Cairo.
Added to that, we just had our Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton meet with the president of Egypt, and I'm
wondering if any of you could tell us or if we have any reason
to believe that the Secretary of State has raised this issue
anywhere and at any time and specifically has she raised it
with the SCAF and/or--not and/or, but and has she raised it
with the president of Egypt. Do you have any information?
Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I read the transcript
of the hearing in which you spoke to Secretary Posner. I was
not able to be at that hearing on November 16th of last year
because I was actually getting on a plane going to Egypt that
very afternoon. So I remember the date. What I can say is that
no one from his office has contacted me to find out or the
coauthor of this report, to find out information about our
cases.
The cases have been disputed. The cases--people have gone
publicly on record saying that no one has been able to
substantiate these cases, that they are inflammatory--they
contain inflammatory allegations but without substantiation.
The only way they could be substantiated is by asking me who's
involved because the identities have not been published and no
one has approached me from Secretary Posner's office to ask me
about follow-up on the report.
Dr. Phares. Mr. Chairman, I would like first of all to take
the opportunity to thank you for what you do for the community
and for engaging the community not just in inviting witnesses
to testify in front of this prestigious committee but actually
for yourself, for the second or third year to go to the
community, to their leadership and engaging them, sitting with
them for hours and hours.
And yourself acting as an investigator of the human rights
abuses of the community, that is the example that we in the
world of NGOs would like to see you and your colleagues and
also the State Department and the administration engaging in.
And the term engagement has been used by the administration
for the last four years repetitively. But unfortunately, among
the recipients of the engage, we didn't see a representative of
the Copts. We saw many delegations from the Muslim Brotherhood,
before and after the Arab Spring. We are now seeing possibly
Salafist delegations heading to the State Department or to the
embassy or maybe beyond that.
But we haven't seen delegations from the Coptic leadership
going or being invited actually to our administration and being
asked about that issue. My esteemed colleague mentioned the
issue of alleged. I mean, in international law, if one incident
is alleged, if 20 incidents are alleged, if 500 incidents over
five years are alleged, then what is alleged at the end of the
day?
To answer you more specifically your question about do we
know about any discussions that took place between the
secretary and the president of Egypt, well, what we have are
open resources and open sources and also the responses from the
NGO--the Coptic NGO. The issue of the Coptic community as
such--and I would like to mention--take advantage also of my
time to mention the direction of the narrative of the
administration, which is very important. And that could help
the narrative of Congress.
When we talk about religious freedom, we put all our
efforts to make sure that religious freedom basically is the
freedom of the religious community. It's not just to go to
church on Sunday. It is not that hour and a half or three hours
from home to church and back. Unfortunately, the narrative that
we've heard over the past three years, and significantly this
year, is that religious freedom is now being perceived by the
executive branch as freedom to practice faith individually.
That is not religious freedom because you may well go to
church while the entire community is suppressed or driven to
jails or even outside the country. What needs to be done is a
re-discussion, first in Congress and then in dialogue with the
administration, that the Coptic community has to be recognized
as a community.
These are not just individual Egyptians who happen to be
Christian who are struggling to go, you know, every Sunday and
pray at church, which means that this community basically has
to be received, has to be basically recognized in the same way
we see representatives from the Kurds of Iraq or from the
people from Darfur or from the Palestinians, for that matter,
or even from East Timor. This is a community that has rights.
It happened that it is Christian.
In Bosnia, they were Muslims. In other places, they are
parts of different religion. So unless we see a change in the
narrative of the administration that would recognize the Copts
as a community, that would start to receive them at the highest
level of our government as such and listen to their issues, I
don't think that there is a recognition of the problem that
exists as a collective problem in Egypt unfortunately.
Ms. Clark. Thank you, and I'd like to really support what
my colleague has said. In the early says of the anti-
trafficking community, as you know so well, the State
Department required a minimum number of cases. A country would
be put on the TIP report only if a minimum number of cases were
proven. That makes sense. You don't want to issue a scathing
report based on allegations. These were provided. Countries
were rated. I know this because I was involved in designing
several of the methodologies used to count these numbers. What
are we waiting for in this particular area? How many more young
women will it take who come and say they endured a miscarriage
because they were wrenched into a bus with their baby whose eye
is wounded next to a car holding onto the mother.
The instances of Copts seeking asylum since the collapse of
the Mubarak regime has escalated, including a large number of
women on these same claims. So we're seeing one aspect of our
government that is recognizing the truth of these instances.
Our immigration courts are saying yes, that you were almost
abducted, that you returned from an abducted situation, that
you fear abduction. These are reasons for granting asylum.
I think it's time to create a bit of harmony in our policy
in this area. I was a witness myself in a federal immigration
hearing a year ago for asylum on the basis of fear of abduction
and that in that case it was also awarded. So enough is enough,
really. How many more times do we have to sit here and bring
voices and bring stories and talk about parents who agonize?
They have imagined--as a parent, your daughter doesn't come
home from work, you don't see her for two months, three months,
nine months. You hear nothing and maybe if you're lucky you'll
then hear her--you'll see her face covered in a veil announcing
her conversion in muffled terms on a YouTube video. But worse,
maybe you'll hear nothing, absolutely nothing.
The silence now, the abductions, the disappearance followed
by nothing is so disturbing because something is happening to
those young women. They haven't been raptured. They haven't
disappeared into thin air. Something has happened to them.
What? We need to find out. We need to require an accounting. We
need to find out how many there are and we need to start
investigating what is happening to these disappeared women.
Mr. Smith. I should make a note for the record at this
point we had invited Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Feltman from
the administration to come here to take questions and to give
testimony, of course. But apparently, they chose not to come.
I would say for the record as well, we will reissue the
request and that would include Assistant Secretary Michael
Posner to come and give an accounting. It's not like--and
especially the women who are being victimized--are being
impatient. This information was physically--I actually put it
into his hands. It wasn't sent by courier or anything else and
we still have had no response, which I find appalling. If not
the United States, then who?
Thankfully the European Parliament has shown even more
interest than the United States government has and I think
that's unfortunate. We should have both be equally interested
when women are being exploited and abused in such a horrific
way. You noted, Ms. Clark, in your statement that the number of
disappearances and abductions appear to be increasing.
And just four attorneys, as you pointed out, collectively a
total of 550 cases of abductions, disappearances and petitions
to restore Christian identify following abductions, forced
marriages and forced conversions over a five-year period--four
lawyers and I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands of
lawyers, but certainly hundreds who would have vital knowledge
of this issue. Do you have any sense yet as to the scope of
this grotesque human rights abuse?
And secondly, with regards to this, where is the U.N.? You
know, Egypt is a signatory since 1982 of the International
Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. Article VIII of that
makes it very clear--it forbids slavery and servitude. Forced
marriage certainly falls under the rubric of that. So my
question would be, you know, where--you know, there was a
periodic review back in I think it was 2010. But at any time,
any country can bring--and we are members in good standing of
the Human Rights Council--can bring an action before the Human
Rights Council to engage in debate and investigation. To the
best of my knowledge, the United States has said nothing. I'm
not sure if the European members who are part of that
Commission have said anything. But it would seem to me that
would be an avenue to raise this--again, this grotesque
violation of women's rights in Egypt which is the equivalent of
rape. When you abduct someone, force them into a marriage, by
any other definition that is rape. And why have we been so
silent? If you can speak to that issue and those couple of
questions?
Ms. Clark. Thank you, Mr. Smith. There is an increasing--
the challenges I mentioned in my testimony of data collection
are manifold for two reasons. The authorities are most of the
time unwilling to file a disappearance report. If a Coptic
father or relative goes to a police station in the district
where just after a daughter disappeared or was abducted, many,
many times that parent gets--or family members gets a
runaround--well, they're here or well, we don't know, maybe
she's just run away again, why are you reporting her, she
probably went off with her boyfriend. And so, often the only
way a Coptic family can file a case of disappearance of
abduction is if they have a lawyer. Many--because many of the
disappearance and abductions take place in rural communities or
communities where individuals have less disposable income, they
can't afford a lawyer. And many of the attorneys that we spoke
to actually take these cases completely pro bono and it ends up
becoming a major part of their caseload. So they work--they're
very heroic in that they put in a great deal of long hours to
take these cases.
So, which is why one of our recommendations was to try to
enable some kind of legal defense fund among the civil society
actors to make sure that the lawyers are compensated and
continue to go on making their living. So scope, I'm really--
it's very hard-pressed. Five lawyers are saying that they are
seeing over a hundred cases a year and these are four lawyers,
it can go anywhere. I know some people are partial to
extrapolation. I tend to be wary of extrapolation. It's a lot.
It's a lot.
Perhaps Dr. Phares has more understanding--understands
more. And the U.N., no--we were able to--in researching this
second report, we looked high and low for evidence that the
U.N--the Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against--All Forms of Discrimination Against Women--whether
they were doing anything. No, we have not been able to find any
references among the U.N. or agencies directed towards the
Coptic issue.
Mr. Smith. So the panel of experts that seeks to implement
and admonish countries--that's CEDAW--only makes that vague
comment that you put into the report?
Ms. Clark. Yes, that's was as much--
Mr. Smith. And they have done nothing more than that?
Ms. Clark. Nothing more than that that we have been able to
find.
Mr. Smith. Let me ask you, your trend lines were important
and again, number of appearance--disappearances and abductions
increasing, fewer girls appear to be returning. And you know,
with every statement you've made, disappearances are organized
and planned. The trend line is bad and getting worse. What do
you think it will take for the United States government and for
other governments and hopefully Islamic countries and
especially the country of Egypt, the government of Egypt to
understand the outrage and the shame and dishonor this terrible
human rights abuse brings to Egypt? How do you shout out loud
enough to say these women are being abducted? What if it was
your daughter or your sister or your mother?
Ms. Clark. The calls for justice need to come and they need
to come louder. It needs to be brought up by our embassy in
Egypt. There has to be an accounting.
Mr. Smith. Have they? Have they brought this up?
Ms. Clark. To my knowledge, I think you and I are on the
same page as far as what we know. Dr. Phares, would you--
Dr. Phares. Yes, Mr. Chairman, thank you for asking this
question. I would insist again on the fact that the
administration or any administration should change direction in
dealing with the Coptic issue. This is not about individual
problems with other individual, you know, perpetrators. This is
an issue of community.
Before the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Egyptian government of
Hosni Mubarak, our ally, despite repetitive demands by the
Congress to look into the issue, their representative in the
Human Rights Council in Switzerland has blocked--has been
blocking the issues. Now, we need to come to President Morsi,
the democratically elected president of Egypt and ask him to
instruct his own representative, his own ambassador in Geneva
at the council to actually raise the issue.
We want the Egyptian government themselves to raise the
issue so that we would basically come and help them. But more
important, as my colleague has mentioned, there should be
actual physical legal acts on our behalf and on behalf of the
international community. We can certainly write to the Arab
League. You, Mr. Chairman, mentioned the issue of shaming them.
Well, they are members of the Arab League and when the Arab
League took a decision to have an intervention--a collective
intervention in Libya because of abuse of human rights, Egypt
voted for. So now, yes, we'd like to send a letter, Congress
could, the administration should, to the Arab League to look
into the issue. And you could go higher than that, as you just
mentioned, to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. These
are institutions with whom we have relationship.
The administration has an ambassador basically that goes to
the Organization of the Islamic Conference. We should enable
that ambassador to go and talk about the specific issue. Egypt
is a member of the OIC. So we need to engage in a dialogue with
the administration to convince them to use every tool at their
powers. It's not just a discrete discussion between a secretary
of state and a president. It should be an open issue.
And last, if I may say, if it comes to that level, our
embassy should simply, you know, grant visas to the victims and
bring them to Congress or your European counterparts should
bring them to the European Parliament. Make it into a public
debate, a public issue. That would basically put a lot of
pressure on the government of Egypt.
Mr. Smith. Michele--Ms. Clark, you mentioned in your
testimony that mothers with young children are increasingly
targeted for abduction. And we heard from the victim just a few
moments ago when she said, what would happen to my daughter if
she--if the abductor had succeeded. My question to you is, is
this a new trend or are we just getting more information on
that? You know, what happens to those children? Are they
compelled to become Muslim as well?
Ms. Clark. Yes, they are. If the mothers--if the mother is
forcibly converted, then all children take on the dominant
religion, which is Islam. When we were there on our last trip,
we spoke to a number of families where the mother--the children
were kept from--were not--were caught between two worlds
because the families were continuing to--in cases where mothers
had been able to come back, where the children--or if the
mother is abducted, even if the children are not with her, the
children are still converted automatically according to
practice.
So the children are caught between two worlds because they
are from a Christian community but their documents would
indicate that they have been converted because of the
conversion of one parent. And so, they become trapped.
Mr. Smith. Let me----
Ms. Clark. Yes, the trend is more. We encountered a greater
number of families where abductions actually included a mother
and several children or targeting a family, a mother was
abducted on her way to Cairo to visit her mother in the
hospital and then this woman's daughter was at the same time
being lured in through a fraudulent relationship away from her
studies at a university.
And so the whole family was targeted in different
locations. It was actually very strategic, to use Dr. Phares'
words. There was a plan behind this to literally co-opt the
entire family.
Mr. Smith. Let me ask you, Dr. Phares, have any--you talked
to strongly about violence against women, which this is, and
terrorizing women. Are there any of the women's organizations
taking a stand in favor of Coptic Christian women and spoken
out?
Dr. Phares. Mr. Chairman, to my knowledge, from public
narrative posted or printed, we haven't seen a significant
statements or policy papers issued by prominent national
organizations dealing with women's issues both in the United
States or dealing with those issues abroad. There have been
mention, of course, of these issues but we haven't seen, for
example, major NGOs dealing with women raising the issue of
persecution of Coptic women.
And if I may take advantage of the answer to mention that
the third branch of our government, I have testified for the
last 18 years to many courts, like you have, dealing with
political asylum. Judges' first question to us, to most of the
experts who are dealing with the Coptic issue and with other
persecutions as well is, is there a country condition?
It's not just about the person. Are you testifying on that
person or on a country condition? And they would not grant
permission, they would not grant political asylum unless the
expert would explain to them that of course the community is
persecuted. So that's--you have with you the third branch
logical question about this issue so that we could communicate
this to the executive branch.
Mr. Smith. Do imams countenance this and affirm or in any
way embrace this abuse of women?
Dr. Phares. In Egypt, regarding the position of the clergy,
one must recognize that the highest authorities in al-Azhar
have had several positions condemning any act of violence. The
problem is that we would like to see them condemning the
network that is perpetrating these acts of violence. And we've
seen this across the Middle East.
Islamist authorities have been, you know, candid enough to
condemn terrorism or to condemn acts of violence against
minorities should it be in Syria or in Lebanon or in Egypt and
specifically in Egypt. What we need them to see--to direct
themselves to is to condemn the actual networks that are
conducting this and the actual ideology that the networks are
using in perpetrating their acts.
Mr. Smith. Let me just ask our victim who, again, we're so
grateful she's here, all of us--I'm sure even the panel feels
the same way. Before you were abducted, did you have any fears
of abduction? Is abduction something that is discussed among
your friends? And have any of your friends had any similar
experiences?
Ms. Anne. [Via interpreter.] Before this attempted
kidnapping, many times we would be spit on in the street,
cursed at, acid water sometimes thrown on women. It hasn't
happened to me but it's happened to others. I was afraid. Even
after the event, after the Saints Church, I was even afraid to
take my daughter to preschool. We are afraid for ourselves. We
are afraid for our children. In the last two years, a lot of
bad things have been happening right after one another.
Mr. Smith. Let me just ask our panelists if they have any
final closing comments that they would like to make. I would
note that the recommendation for or the suggestion of a letter
to the OIC I think is an excellent one and to others. We will
undertake that and follow up. I plan on doing a followup letter
to the secretary of state asking what, how often, where has
this barbaric practice and the effort to combat it been raised
with the secretary of state and others.
So I do hope that's a good news story, that this has been
robustly engaged and they're fighting back. And that would
include with the SCAF, whether or not they are, you know, ever
focused on--you know, the economic or I should say the military
aid of $1.3 billion which is a huge amount of money and so it
seems to me that they need to be engaged even at least equally
with the president.
I would ask you if you might want to comment whether or not
an amendment requiring or linking the government's efforts to
combat this egregious practice and linking it to the billion-
three [dollars] that goes to Egypt will be a wise decision in
the foreign ops bill. Yes, we know that the administration, as
they did with the religious freedom part, could simply waive it
and I hope they wouldn't. In good faith, I hope that they would
not waive it or perhaps deduct a portion of the aid as a
penalty. If there's no penalty and if it's not even being
brought up, why do we expect any kind of positive movement? And
so on the amendment issue, if you might want to touch on that,
and then any concluding comments that you might want to make.
Ms. Clark. Thank you, again. I want to thank you, Mr.
Smith, for holding this hearing and Christian Solidarity
International, for being so persistent and publishing not one
but two reports to make sure that the information is brought to
those who are decision-makers.
Women need to be able to pick up their children from school
without fear of being abducted. Young girls need to be able to
go out and have cups of coffee with their friends without
fearing that the brother lurking in the background is perhaps
going to be raping them. Young women need to be able to come
and go and have lives without looking over their shoulder 24
hours a day wondering if they're going to end up forced into a
taxi, thrust into al-Azhar to be forcibly converted, married to
someone that has deceived them about the nature of the
relationship and living in a coerced situation as a domestic
servant or potentially trafficked outside of their own country.
To not address this issue is to say that we don't care. And
that we cannot say. So should there be an amendment to the
foreign aid bill? Absolutely, because we're talking about one
of the rights that is just so fundamental to all of us here as
Americans. It's at the heart of what our country is. Because of
fear of abduction, they now feel that--these women feel that
they have no movement. They can't come and go.
The parameters of their daily lives are increasingly
entrenched around survival and safety. This is no way to live.
The suffering of parents who haven't heard from their daughters
for months and years and the silence continues is no way for a
family to live. The sense of marginalization of the young
children who are converted because their mother was forced into
conversion and living in a no man's land of not being accepted
by their own community, that's not a way for anybody to live.
Mr. Smith, it's time that we require acknowledgement of
this issue as a bona fide violation of human rights, as a
violation of religious freedom, as a cruel instance of
exploitation against women, as a case of human trafficking and
something that must end. Thank you.
Dr. Phares. Mr. Chairman, I am for an amendment that would
link foreign aid to Egypt to the human rights abuses and the
measurement--a clear measurement of these human rights abuses
and the behavior with the Christian women in Egypt should be
part of this measurement. However, we could help the State
Department and the executive branch by suggesting that they
would organize a conference here in Washington, D.C., so that
the American public, who is basically funding this foreign aid
at the end of the day, can hear and see directly from the
victims and from all other political parties in Egypt.
Namely, I would like to see a conference that would invite
the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, those who in Egypt are
claiming that persecution does not exist on the one hand and
Coptic and women and other minorities, NGOs under the auspices
of the State Department to just have C-SPAN and have the
American public, realizing what is the real relationship and
what are the problems.
And last, I would also like to make a recommendation for
our foreign policy when we meet with President Morsi to make
sure that he understands that the United States do consider
those issues as part of international law, as part of our
international commitment. And lately, President Morsi, in order
to make us feel comfortable and the intentional community and
make those communities feel comfortable said that he would be
willing to appoint a vice president who would be a Copt,
another vice president who would be a woman.
Well, the response came from the Coptic community a few
weeks ago, from Coptic Solidarity International Convention in
Washington. They actually told President Morsi, thank you for
your suggestion. We don't want anybody to be appointed. We
would like to elect our representative and serve as your vice
president. So let's see what his response is going to be. And
thank you very much for inviting me.
Mr. Smith. And for the final word, the woman who bravely
has come here to testify about her ordeal.
Ms. Anne. The last thing is I wish I could have filed the
police report. But my father advised me, who is an attorney,
that if we go, we won't get any of our rights. In all
likelihood, we would be transferred to Egyptian state security.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. Thank you all for your tremendous
witness. And the Commission will follow up. Thank you for the
many recommendations. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I C E S
Prepared Statement of Hon. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman, Commission
on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Good afternoon and welcome to our hearing on the escalating
violence against Coptic women and girls in Egypt following the Arab
Spring, including the outrageous crimes of abduction, forced
conversion, and forced marriage, which the Egyptian government is doing
all too little to prevent--if indeed it is doing anything at all.
It has now been almost a year and a half since the revolution began
in Egypt, and Egypt is still in the foundry fires of transition--
hopefully into a free and democratic state. The Egyptians have elected
a parliament, but, because the Muslim Brotherhood contested independent
seats, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) dissolved it with
the support of the Constitutional Court.
A president, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected
and installed--but not before the SCAF, who seem to be mostly
secularist, curtailed presidential power over the military and given
the military legislative powers.
The Constituent Panel, which was drawn from the now dissolved
parliament and has been boycotted by the Coptic Christians, has begun
drafting work on Egypt's new constitution--yet it may be disbanded any
day by a pending court decision.
Order seems to hang by a thread and tensions run extremely high.
Though Egypt has avoided civil war, the revolution and ongoing unrest
and social conflict has already left many casualties in the Coptic
community. Sadly, there are groups that would use the ancient Christian
Coptic community as a way to build unity around a common enemy.
The SCAF was guilty of this on October 9, 2011, when the military
fired on a peaceful group of Coptic Christians at Maspero and ran them
over with military vehicles, while calling through the national news
service for called for ``honorable citizens'' to ``defend the army
against attack''--that is, the SCAF openly incited violence against the
Coptic minority.
Twenty-seven people were killed and more than 300 injured--almost
all of them were Copts. The military claim that one soldier was killed
but it refuses to release his name. Almost a year later, protestors are
on trial for the incident, and three soldiers have been charged with
misdemeanors.
Today Michele Clark will present her new report on the
disappearance, forced marriages, and forced conversions of Coptic
women. The vulnerability and abduction of the Coptic Christians is not
a new problem. Going back to the 1970s there are many accounts of
Coptic women and girls being abducted by Muslims, forcibly converted,
and forcibly married. No doubt in some cases women chose to elope,
marry across religious lines, and cut off relations with their family.
But the claim of the Egyptian government that this is in fact what
happened to every one of the thousands of disappeared women and girls
defies massive and carefully collected evidence. The women and girls
who are found often claim to have been drugged and kidnapped, or
kidnapped with violence. They report human rights abuses including
forced conversion, rape, forced marriage, beatings, and domestic
servitude.
Alarmingly, since the revolution, cases of reported disappearance
have increased, while recovery of the women and girls have decreased.
Those women who are found and returned to their families face many
obstacles--including government refusal to assist in their return, to
prosecute their kidnappers, and to change their identify cards to
reflect their return to their Christian faith, which seems to sanction
forced conversions. Nor are we aware of any case, before or after the
revolution, in which an abductor has been prosecuted.
President Morsi, in his first speech as President, envisioned Egypt
as being for Muslims and Christians. This must mean true justice for
Copts. Copts must be given equal protection under the law. The Copts
are not asking for special rights but rather that the Egyptian
government perform its basic responsibility to protect its citizens and
their rights.
Secretary Clinton was in Egypt over the weekend, and some of those
demonstrating were Copts carrying signs that said, ``Obama, don't send
your dollars to Jihadists.'' Congress sent a similar message with the
2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which required the Secretary to
certify that Egypt was making improvements in religious freedom before
we released the $1.3 billion in aid.
An unnamed senior State Department official reported to Reuters
that, ``On the basis of America's national security interests, she
(Clinton) will waive legislative conditions related to Egypt's
democratic transition, allowing for the continued flow of 'Foreign
Military Financing' to Egypt...the move reflects our overarching goal:
to maintain our strategic partnership with an Egypt made stronger and
more stable by a successful transition to democracy.''
My response to that official is simply this: in Egypt, Coptic women
and girls are not now protected and free to live their lives without
fear of abduction, forced conversion, and other abuses of their human
rights. Our policy should be to stand with them, and to every tool in
our policy kit to encourage the Egyptian government to do the same.
Prepared Statement of Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair, United States
Commission on International Religious Freedom
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today before the Helsinki
Commission on ``Escalating Violence Against Coptic Women and Girls:
Will the New Egypt Be More Dangerous Than the Old?'' I have been asked
today to give an overview about the general status of and conditions
for religious freedom in Egypt, especially for Coptic Christians. I
request that my statement be entered into the record.
Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, USCIRF has been deeply
engaged on Egypt and for good reason: For our entire existence, and
indeed, prior to our creation, religious freedom conditions, including
those of Egypt's Coptic population, have been extremely problematic.
This situation continues into the present and with the election of
Mohammed Morsi, the first freely elected President of Egypt, on June
30. The Egyptian transitional government continues to engage in and
tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of
religious freedom. Discriminatory and repressive laws and policies
remain that restrict freedom of thought, conscience and religion or
belief. Given these concerns, and for the second year in a row, USCIRF
recommended in its 2012 Annual Report that Egypt be designated a
``country of particular concern,'' or CPC, under the 1998 International
Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). I also request that USCIRF's 2012 Annual
Report chapter on Egypt be entered into the record.
From the evidence we have seen, the biggest problem faced by the
Copts, who comprise about 10 to 15 per cent of Egypt's 80 million
people, continues to be one of impunity. Simply stated, for decades,
Egypt's government has fostered a climate conducive to acts of violence
against Copts and members of other minority communities. It has done so
in at least two ways. First, Cairo's long history of restrictive laws
and policies--from blasphemy codes to an Emergency Law to across-the-
board discrimination--has drawn unwelcome attention to religious
minorities, further marginalizing them and leading to violent words and
deeds launched by intolerant individuals as well as by radical
religious groups.
Second, the government's continued failure to protect innocent
people from these attacks and to convict those responsible has served
to encourage further assaults. For years, President Mubarak's
government tolerated widespread discrimination against religious
minorities and disfavored religious groups, from dissident Sunni and
Shi'a Muslims to Baha'is, as well as Copts and other Christians, while
allowing state-controlled media and state-funded mosques to deliver
incendiary messages against them. The consequences of the climate of
impunity are especially apparent in Upper Egypt.
After Mubarak's departure, a breakdown in security and a rise in
sectarian violence made 2011 one of the worst years for Copts and other
minorities. Last year alone, violent sectarian attacks killed
approximately 100 people, surpassing the death toll of the previous 10
years combined. As during the Mubarak regime, Copts were the primary
target, and most of the perpetrators still have not been brought to
justice: perpetrators have not been convicted or alleged perpetrators
have been detained for short periods, but eventually released without
charge. While USCIRF's 2012 Annual Report chapter on Egypt includes a
list of some of the most tragic acts of violence committed against the
Coptic Orthodox community, let me note the following significant
incident: Last October, Egypt's state media falsely accused Copts of
attacking the military when Muslim and Christian protestors marched
toward the state television station. Following the state media's call
on civilians to counter this imaginary threat, on October 9, in
downtown Cairo, armed men attacked peaceful demonstrators, killing at
least 26 of them, most of them Copts, while injuring over 300 more.
Responding to the violence, Egypt's military used live ammunition and
also deployed armored vehicles that deliberately crushed and killed at
least 12 protestors.
In addition, reports in recent years support claims that there were
cases of Muslim men forcing Coptic Christian women to convert to Islam.
The State Department has asserted that such cases are often disputed
and include ``inflammatory allegations and categorical denials of
kidnapping and rape.'' For example, there were credible cases in which
Coptic girls voluntarily converted to Islam to marry Muslim men, and
subsequently, when the relationship failed, sought to return to
Christianity. Nevertheless, during the reporting period, experts and
human rights groups have found that there were also credible cases
where Coptic Christian women were lured deceptively into marriages with
Muslim men and forced to convert to Islam. According to these reports,
if a woman returns or escapes from the marriage and wants to convert
back to Christianity, she faces the same legal hurdles in changing her
religious affiliation on official identity documents as discussed
above.
In recent years, in response to sectarian violence, Egyptian
authorities have conducted ``reconciliation'' sessions between Muslims
and Christians as a way of easing tensions and resolving disputes. In
some cases, authorities compelled victims to abandon their claims to
any legal remedy. USCIRF has stated that reconciliation efforts should
not be used to undermine enforcing the law and punishing perpetrators
for wrongdoing. In recent years, the State Department concluded that
reconciliation sessions not only ``prevented the prosecution of
perpetrators of crimes against Copts and precluded their recourse to
the judicial system for restitution'' but also ``contributed to a
climate of impunity that encouraged further assaults.''
For all Christian groups, government permission is required to
build a new church or repair an existing one, and the approval process
for church construction is time-consuming and inflexible. Former
President Mubarak had the authority to approve applications for new
construction of churches. Although most of these applications were
submitted more than five years ago, the majority have not received a
response. Even some permits that have been approved cannot, in fact, be
acted upon because of interference by the state security services at
both the local and national levels.
In 2005, former President Mubarak devolved authority to approve the
renovation and re-construction of churches from the president to the
country's governors. Several years later, some churches continue to
face delays in the issuance of permits. Even in cases where approval to
build or maintain churches has been granted, many Christians complain
that local security services have prevented construction or repair, in
some cases for many years. In addition, local security services have
been accused of being complicit in inciting violence against some
churches undergoing routine maintenance or repair. In recent years, the
government repeatedly has pledged, most recently in October 2011, to
adopt a new law that would apply to all places of worship. In June,
after consulting with religious leaders and other experts, the SCAF
released publicly a draft version of the law. The draft was criticized
widely by Muslims, Christians, and Egyptian human rights groups. While
a subsequent version has not been made public, some reports have
indicated that the revised draft law covers only churches and not other
places of worship.
This is not to say there has been no progress since the end of the
Mubarak regime. To be sure, we have seen some hopeful developments.
Last year, the Grand Sheikh at Al-Azhar began several initiatives
expressing support for freedom of religion or belief. In May of last
year, the government began to reopen more than 50 churches that had
been closed, in some cases for years. Last July, the Supreme
Administrative Court ruled that reconverts to Christianity could obtain
new national identity documents indicating their Christianity but not
their former Muslim faith. And following the October violence, the
transitional government took steps to reduce discrimination in Egypt's
Penal Code.
Yet despite this progress, the bottom line is this: Copts need to
be protected, Copts aren't being protected, and Copts must be
protected--along with every other member of Egyptian society--from
attacks on their right to order their lives and practice their beliefs
in dignity and peace.
As long as Copts and other religious minorities aren't being
sufficiently protected, USCIRF will continue to spotlight the problem
and recommend that the U.S. government take strong action in support of
religious freedom. Our recommendations to the United States government
are as follows:
First, the United States should press Egypt to improve
religious freedom conditions, by repealing discriminatory decrees
against religious minorities, removing religion from official identity
documents, abolishing the blasphemy codes, and passing a unified law
for the construction and repair of places of worship.
Second, the United States should urge Egypt's government
to prosecute government-funded clerics, government officials, or any
other individuals who incite violence, while disciplining or dismissing
government-funded clerics who preach intolerance and hatred.
Third, the United States should increase pressure on
Egypt to bring to justice those who have committed violence against
fellow Egyptians on account of their religion.
Fourth, Washington should press Cairo to include robust
protections for religious freedom in a new constitution.
Fifth, the U.S. Congress should require the Departments
of State and Defense to report every 90 days on the Egyptian
government's progress pertaining to religious freedom and related
rights.
Sixth, until genuine progress occurs, USCIRF renews its
call for the United States to designate Egypt a ``country of particular
concern'' as one of the world's most serious religious freedom abusers.
And finally, if Egypt demonstrates a commitment to
progress on freedom of religion and related rights, the United States
should ensure that a portion of its military aid to Egypt is used to
help Egypt's police implement a plan to enhance protection for
religious minorities, their places of worship, and places where they
congregate.
Today, as Egypt confronts the rigors of democratic transition, will
it uphold the rights of Copts and other religious minorities? The world
is watching, the Helsinki Commission is watching, and USCIRF is
watching, too. Thank you again for this opportunity to testify.
USCIRF 2012 REPORT: EGYPT
FINDINGS: Over the past year, the Egyptian transitional government
continued to engage in and tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious
violations of freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief.
Serious problems of discrimination, intolerance, and other human rights
violations against members of religious minorities, as well as
disfavored Muslims, remain widespread in Egypt. Violence targeting
Coptic Orthodox Christians increased significantly during the reporting
period. The transitional government has failed to protect religious
minorities from violent attacks at a time when minority communities
have been increasingly vulnerable. This high level of violence and the
failure to convict those responsible continued to foster a climate of
impunity, making further violence more likely. During the reporting
period, military and security forces used excessive force and live
ammunition targeting Coptic Christian demonstrators and places of
worship resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The
government also continued to prosecute, convict, and impose prison
terms on Egyptian citizens charged with blasphemy. Implementation of
previous court rulings--related to granting official identity documents
to Baha'is and changing religious affiliation on identity documents for
converts to Christianity--has seen some progress but continues to lag,
particularly for Baha'is. In addition, the government has not responded
adequately to combat widespread and virulent anti-Semitism in the
government-controlled media.
Based on these concerns, USCIRF again recommends in 2012 that Egypt
be designated as a ``country of particular concern,'' or CPC, for
systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. In
2011, USCIRF, for the first time, recommended that Egypt be designated
a CPC. Before that, Egypt had been on USCIRF's Watch List since 2002.
Despite claims by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) that
it dismantled the state security apparatus, partially lifted the state
of emergency, and addressed some ongoing religious freedom concerns,
discriminatory and repressive laws and policies that restrict freedom
of thought, conscience and religion or belief in Egypt remain in place.
Religious freedom conditions have not improved in most areas and
attacks targeting religious minorities have continued. In 2011, violent
sectarian attacks, targeting primarily Coptic Orthodox Christians, have
resulted in nearly 100 deaths, surpassing the death toll of the
previous 10 years combined. During the transitional period, the lack of
adequate security in the streets has contributed to lawlessness in
parts of the country, particularly in Upper Egypt.
PRIORITY RECOMMENDATIONS: Egypt continues to experience a period of
significant change during its transition, the success of which hinges
on full respect for the rule of law and compliance with international
human rights standards, including freedom of religion or belief.
Pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-74),
the U.S. government should not certify the disbursement of military
assistance to Egypt until the Egyptian transitional government
demonstrates that it is using funds appropriated through the Foreign
Military Financing Program to implement policies that protect freedom
of religion and related human rights in Egypt. In addition, once the
Egyptian government demonstrates its commitment to freedom of religion
and related rights, the U.S. government should ensure that a portion of
military assistance is used to help the Egyptian police assess security
needs and develop and implement an effective plan for dedicated police
protection for religious minority communities and their places of
worship. The U.S. government should press the transitional, and future
civilian government, to undertake reforms to improve religious freedom
conditions, including repealing decrees banning religious minority
faiths, removing religion from official identity documents, and passing
a unified law for the construction and repair of places of worship. In
addition, the United States should more actively press the Egyptian
government to prosecute perpetrators of sectarian violence and to
ensure that responsibility for religious affairs is not placed under
the jurisdiction of the domestic security agency. Additional
recommendations for U.S. policy towards Egypt can be found at the end
of this chapter.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CONDITIONS
Transition, Parliamentary Elections, Crackdown on Dissent, and the
Emergency Law
On February 11, 2011, President Hosni Mubarak was removed from
power following 18 days of a mostly non-violent, popular uprising by
the Egyptian people. Subsequently, the Egyptian Supreme Council of
Armed Forces (SCAF) took control of the country. Within days, the SCAF
dissolved the parliament, suspended the constitution, formed a
committee to recommend constitutional amendments, and called for
presidential and parliamentary elections. Over the past year, the SCAF
appointed a civilian cabinet; conducted a referendum that approved
amendments to Egypt's constitution; issued a 63-article constitutional
declaration to govern the country through the transition; and issued
laws governing the formation of political parties and the structure of
parliamentary elections.
The lower house of parliament (People's Assembly) was elected
through a three-stage process between November 2011 and January 2012.
The Freedom and Justice Party (Muslim Brotherhood alliance) and the Al-
Nour Party (Salafi alliance) won approximately 47percent and 24
percent, respectively, of the 498 seats in the lower house; all other
political parties won less than 10 percent of the seats. No women and
only two Christians won seats, slightly fewer than during the Mubarak
regime. The SCAF appointed another 10 members, which included five
Christians and three women. Elections for 180 of the 270 seats in the
upper house (Shura Council) concluded in February 2012, followed by the
convening of its first session at the end of that month. The remaining
90 seats of the Shura Council will be appointed by Egypt's next
president. Once the parliament begins its session, it will name a 100-
person constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. Presidential
elections are expected to begin in May and conclude in June.
Although the parliamentary elections, despite some irregularities,
were the most free and fair in decades, the SCAF tightened its grip on
opposition groups. The SCAF used deadly force against public
protestors, including Coptic Christians; arrested, tried, and
imprisoned democracy activists; raided pro-democracy non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and also imposed travel bans on their American and
European personnel; and fostered anti-Western xenophobia through state-
run media. Over the past year, human rights groups have accused the
military of arresting thousands of demonstrators and subsequently
holding trials lacking due process, convicting, and sentencing many to
three- to five-year prison terms. Many of those convicted did not have
access to legal counsel and some of the trials and convictions were
carried out the same day.
The transitional government undertook efforts to dismantle the
state security apparatus that has operated under the Emergency Law, in
effect since 1981 and most recently renewed for another two years in
May 2010. In January 2012, the SCAF announced it would be lifting the
Emergency Law except in cases of ``thuggery,'' although it did not
define that term. Because Egypt has operated under a state of
emergency, the government has had the option to hear cases involving
terrorism or drug trafficking in state security courts rather than
criminal courts. The Emergency Laws restrict many human rights,
including freedom of religion or belief as well as freedom of
expression, assembly, and association. In addition, the state security
courts do not allow the right to appeal guilty verdicts. Egyptian and
international human rights groups have been critical of the courts'
procedures and limits on the rule of law and due process.
Over the years, thousands of persons have been detained without
charges under the Emergency Law on suspicion of illegal terrorist or
political activity. Egyptian and international human rights groups have
asserted that the primary purpose of the state security courts is to
punish political activism and dissent, even when that dissent is
peaceful. These courts also have been used to detain and try
individuals deemed by the state to have ``unorthodox'' or ``deviant''
Islamic or other religious beliefs or practices. During the past year,
many "security detainees" were released from prison.
Government Control of Islamic Institutions
As it did during the Mubarak era, the government maintains control
over all Muslim religious institutions, including mosques and religious
endowments, which are encouraged to promote an officially-sanctioned
interpretation of Islam. According to Egyptian officials, the
government regulates these Muslim institutions and activities as a
necessary precaution against religious extremism and terrorism. The
state appoints and pays the salaries of all Sunni Muslim imams,
requires all mosques to be licensed by the government, and monitors
sermons. During the reporting period, Egyptian transitional government
officials were concerned that increasing numbers of mosques were
operating independently of any government oversight and that some of
these mosques were used to incite violence.
The government-funded Al-Azhar University is one of the preeminent
Sunni Muslim centers of learning in the world. The Grand Sheikh of Al-
Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, was appointed by former president Hosni Mubarak
in 2010. The Islamic Research Center (IRC) of Al-Azhar has legal
authority to censor and, since 2004, to confiscate any publications
dealing with the Qur'an and hadith (oral traditions). In recent years,
the IRC has ruled on the suitability of non-religious books and
artistic productions. Al-Azhar also has the legal right to recommend
confiscations, but must obtain a court order to do so. In January 2012,
before the People's Assembly convened for the first time, the SCAF
passed a law mandating that the Grand Sheikh be elected by Al-Azhar's
Senior Scholars Authority rather than chosen by the president of the
country. Such a system of election previously was in force before 1961.
During the Mubarak regime, the Egyptian government consulted Al-
Azhar on a wide range of religious issues impacting Muslims in the
country. Over the years, clerics and scholars at Al-Azhar have issued
discriminatory fatwas (religious edicts) and delivered controversial
sermons about some non-Muslim faiths, particularly the Baha'i faith, as
well as disfavored or dissenting Muslims. Non-Muslims are prohibited
from attending Al-Azhar University. In January 2012, Al-Azhar Grand
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb put forward a ``Bill of Rights'' that discussed
freedom of belief and expression, among other things. (See in Positive
Developments in Egypt)
Blasphemy and Violations against Muslims and Dissidents
Egyptian law forbids blasphemy through Article 98(f) of its Penal
Code, which prohibits citizens from ``ridiculing or insulting heavenly
religions or inciting sectarian strife.'' This provision has been
applied to detain and prosecute individuals and members of religious
groups whose practices deviate from mainstream Islamic beliefs or whose
activities are alleged to jeopardize ``communal harmony'' or to insult
the three ``heavenly religions:'' Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Groups and individuals impacted in recent years include Ahmadis,
Koranists, Christians, and Sunni, Shi'a, and Sufi Muslims.
In 2010, government security officials arrested without charge 11
members of the country's small Ahmadi community; all were subsequently
released within weeks or months. The Ahmadis were charged under Article
98(f) with ``contempt for religion'' and also on vague Emergency Law
charges of undermining social cohesion. Although they were never
prosecuted, the small Ahmadi community continues to fear government
arrest and prosecution for alleged blasphemy.
Qur'anists--a tiny group that accepts only the Qur'an as the sole
source of religious guidance and thus has been accused by the Egyptian
government of deviating from Islamic law--ing the reporting period,
members of the Qur'anist community report discrimination in employment
and continue to suffer from harassment and surveillance by security
services. Authorities have prevented some members from leaving the
country.
Over the years, the small Shi'a Muslim community has faced periodic
discrimination, harassment, arrests, and imprisonment. In January 2012,
Egyptian authorities closed the Shi'a Hussein mosque in Cairo to
prevent Shi'a Muslims from observing Ashura. In December 2011, at least
four Shi'a Muslims reportedly were detained and charged with
``insulting and denying tenets'' of Islam. Among the four was an
Australian national, who was freed after one month in detention. The
status of the other three is unknown. In September and October 2010,
Egyptian authorities detained nearly 100 Shi'a Muslims. According to
media reports, at least 12 of the Shi'a Muslims were accused by a state
security court of ``contempt of religion'' and forming an illegal group
to overthrow the government. Their current status is unknown.
On February 1, 2012, well-known Egyptian actor and comedian, Adel
Imam, was sentenced to three months in prison and fined by a Cairo
court for ``contempt of religion'' because of characters he portrayed
in several films in recent years. In October 2011, a Cairo court
sentenced Ayman Yusef Mansour to three years in jail with hard labor
for ``insulting'' Islam in postings on Facebook. The court found that
Mansour ``intentionally insulted the dignity of the Islamic religion
and attacked it with insults and ridicule on Facebook.'' In another
case, Egyptian telecom mogul and Coptic Christian parliamentarian
Naguib Sawiris was tried in January 2012 for blasphemy under Article
98(f) of the Penal Code because he tweeted cartoons in June 2011 of
Mickey and Minnie Mouse wearing conservative Muslim attire. The case
was dismissed in February.
Islamists and Extremism
The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups which advocate or
seek to establish an Islamic state in Egypt based on their
interpretation of Islamic law were illegal organizations during the
Mubarak era under a law prohibiting political parties based on
religion. While this prohibition remains in place even after new
amendments to the constitution went into effect in March 2011, the
Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups formed political parties
on other platforms. In April 2011, a Muslim Brotherhood alliance formed
the Freedom and Justice Party. Similarly, in June an alliance of ultra-
conservative Salafi Muslims formed the Al-Nour Party.
The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups have used violence
in the past to achieve their aims, including the assassination of
President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981 and attacks on foreign tourists. The
Muslim Brotherhood publicly renounced violence in the 1970s. Under the
Mubarak regime, Egyptian security forces arrested hundreds, if not
thousands, of suspected Islamists every year, and some were subject to
torture and/or prolonged detention without charge. Human rights groups
that closely monitor the detention of such individuals claim that the
vast majority are in prison as a result of their political beliefs or
activities, and not on the basis of religion.
Human rights activists inside Egypt increasingly are concerned that
extremist groups that support policies aimed at destroying the rights
of others continue to advance in the country, with detrimental effects
on the prospects for genuine democratic reform or improvements in
freedom of religion or belief. During the transition period, Egypt has
witnessed an increase in crime and lawlessness due to a decrease in
police and security presence. Some Islamist militant groups have used
this lapse to impose extra-judicial punishments. During the early
months of the transition, Sufi Muslims experienced increased attacks
and harassment by Islamist militant groups, as they deem as heretical a
number of Sufi religious practices, including the veneration of saints.
In Alexandria, extremists targeted at least 16 historic mosques
belonging to Sufi orders and attempted to deface and destroy tombs of
important Sufi Islamic scholars. In Qalyoub, north of Cairo, militants
attacked at least five Sufi shrines. By the end of the reporting
period, at least two people had been detained in relation to the
attacks, although no one had been brought to justice.
Incitement to violence in media and government-funded mosques
In the months leading up to the November 2011 parliamentary
elections, an increase in incitement to violence in Egyptian media and
government-funded mosques exacerbated sectarian tensions between
Muslims and Coptic Christians. In October, Egypt state media falsely
accused Coptic Christians of attacking the Egyptian military during
peaceful protests marching toward the Maspero state television station.
State media called on Egyptian citizens to support the Egyptian
military in ``protecting Egypt'' from Christian protestors. This
incitement by state media led to counter-revolutionary elements and
extremists attacking Coptic Christians (see more detail below).
During the reporting period, there continued to be reports of
incitement and anti-Christian hatred espoused by imams in mosques. In
recent years, some imams in mosques have incited large crowds to oppose
and/or prevent the building and maintenance of churches, particularly
in Upper Egypt. For example, in late September 2011, in the Aswan
province, local imams incited at least 1,000 Muslim villagers, who
subsequently set fire to the St. George Coptic Orthodox Church as well
as some Christian-owned businesses and homes (see more detail below).
There continues to be intolerance of Jews and Baha'is in both the
independent and government-controlled media. Material vilifying Jews
with both historical and new anti-Semitic stereotypes appear regularly
in the state-controlled and semi-official media. In February 2012, a
Salafi leader and former parliamentary candidate in Alexandria, Abdel
Moneim al-Shahat, publicly stated on the al-Haqiqa television program
that Baha'is should be prosecuted for treason because they are
apostates and are not entitled to any rights in Egypt.
Violence Targeting Christians
Since early 2011, hundreds of Egyptians were killed in the streets
as a result of a decrease in security and a dramatic increase in
violence. Violent sectarian attacks targeting Coptic Orthodox
Christians and their property also increased significantly. In 2011,
Coptic and human rights groups reported more than 40 sectarian
incidents resulting in nearly 100 deaths, mostly Coptic Christians,
surpassing the death toll of the previous 10 years combined. In most
cases, perpetrators have not been convicted. In other cases, alleged
perpetrators have been detained for short periods but eventually
released without charge.
The ongoing violence, and the failure to prosecute those
responsible, continued to foster a climate of impunity, especially in
Upper Egypt. In recent years, in response to sectarian violence,
Egyptian authorities have conducted ``reconciliation'' sessions between
Muslims and Christians as a way of easing tensions and resolving
disputes. In some cases, authorities compelled victims to abandon their
claims to any legal remedy. This continued during the reporting period.
USCIRF has stated that reconciliation efforts should not be used to
undermine enforcing the law and punishing perpetrators for wrongdoing.
In recent years, the State Department concluded that reconciliation
sessions not only ``prevented the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes
against Copts and precluded their recourse to the judicial system for
restitution'' but also ``contributed to a climate of impunity that
encouraged further assaults.''
Below are examples of violent incidents, primarily during the
reporting period, impacting the Coptic Orthodox community, who comprise
approximately 10 to 15 per cent of Egypt's 80 million people.
In late January 2012, in the Sharbat village near Alexandria,
Muslim villagers set on fire and destroyed several Christian-owned
homes and businesses after a rumor surfaced about analleged sexual
relationship between a married Muslim woman and a Christian man. At
least three people were injured. After reconciliation sessions convened
by local politicians and religious leaders, eight Christian families
were ordered to leave the village and to abandon their properties.
Subsequently, a parliamentary delegation from Cairo visited the village
and investigated the incidents. It concluded that the eviction of at
least five of the Christian families should be overturned and their
properties be returned. The delegation also blamed the local media for
exaggerating facts and urged police to investigate to determine who was
individually responsible for the destruction of Christian property and
injuries suffered. An investigation is ongoing.
On October 9, 2011, at least 26 people were killed, mostly Coptic
Orthodox Christians, and more than 300 injured in downtown Cairo after
armed men confronted and attacked peaceful protestors. The
demonstrators, both Christians and Muslims, were marching to the
Maspero state television station to protest the September 30
destruction of a church in Aswan, Upper Egypt. Egyptian state-owned
media incited the violence when broadcasters urged Egyptians to go out
into the streets to protect security forces from attacks by Christian
protestors. Responding to the violence, Egyptian military forces used
live ammunition and excessive force, including armored vehicles that
deliberately crushed and killed at least 12 protestors. Dozens of
suspects have been detained and interrogated. In December, a Cairo
court decided to release, pending further investigations, the remaining
27 Coptic Christian detainees arrested in connection with the violence.
The investigation reportedly is ongoing.
On September 30, in the Aswan province, an estimated mob of more
than 1,000 Muslims looted and burned the St. George Coptic Orthodox
Church, as well as some Christian-owned businesses and homes, after
incitement by local imams in village mosques. Local media reports
indicated that a Ministry of Justice fact-finding mission traveled to
Aswan on October 12, in the aftermath of the Maspero violence, to
investigate the St. George church burning. According to the State
Department, the status of the investigation is unknown. On May 8, at
least 15 Christians and Muslims were killed and more than 200 people
were wounded as Islamist extremists attacked Christians at the St. Mina
Church in the Imbaba district of Cairo. Another church, the Church of
the Virgin Mary, was burned to the ground and several Christian-owned
shops were vandalized and looted. The government is prosecuting 48
individuals charged with murder, attempted murder, and a variety of
other crimes. At the end of the reporting period, the prosecution is
ongoing.
On March 8 in the Mokattam area of Cairo, 13 people were killed and
nearly 150 wounded in clashes that erupted during large-scale
demonstrations by Christians protesting the destruction of a church in
the provincial town of Sol. The demonstrators called for rebuilding the
church, punishment of perpetrators, and better treatment by Egyptian
authorities. According to some accounts, troops from the Egyptian
military stood by for as long as four hours without intervening.
Egyptian officials said that all of those killed died of gunshot
wounds, although it is still unclear who was responsible for the
killings. While the SCAF expeditiously rebuilt the church by Easter, no
one has been charged with the deaths. The status of the investigation
is unknown.
On March 4, also in Sol, local Muslims set fire and destroyed a
church after clashes between Christians and Muslims left two dead. The
clashes reportedly resulted from a feud between the families of a
Christian man and a Muslim woman who allegedly were having a romantic
relationship. According to reports, there has been no investigation and
no one has been brought to justice.
On February 23, the Egyptian military reportedly used excessive
force and live ammunition at the Anba Bishoy monastery in Wadi Natroun,
north of Cairo, to destroy a wall monks had built to defend their
property from criminals recently set free from local prisons. One monk
and six church workers were injured, and the monk later died. According
to reports, military forces used heavy machine guns and armored
personnel carriers to bulldoze the wall. To date, no one has been held
accountable.
On January 1, 2011, a bomb exploded at the Coptic Orthodox Church
of the Two Saints (Al Qiddissin) in Alexandria where a New Year's
prayer service was being held, killing at least 23 people and wounding
approximately 100. At the end of the reporting period, there were no
suspects in custody and no one has been brought to trial for murder.
The Egyptian government reports that its investigation is ongoing.
On January 6, 2010, in the town of Naga Hammadi, Qena Governorate,
three men sprayed automatic gunfire on Coptic churchgoers leaving
midnight Christmas Mass, resulting in the deaths of six Christians and
one off-duty Muslim police officer and several injuries. On January 16,
2011, a state security court convicted and sentenced to death one of
the three, Mohamed Ahmed Hussein. On February 20, 2011, the court
ratified the verdict against Hussein but acquitted the two other men,
who were known to be accomplices in the killings. Hussein was executed
on October 10, 2011. According to official Egyptian government media
reports in November 2011, an Egyptian state security court intends to
retry the two defendants who were acquitted.
In 2004, the Court of Cassation upheld the acquittal of 94 out of
the 96 persons suspected of involvement in the killing of 21 Christians
in Al-Kosheh in late 1999 and early 2000. Some Egyptian human rights
groups believe that Egyptian authorities should still investigate
claims of police negligence and inadequate prosecution of those
involved in this earlier violence.
Discrimination against Christians
In addition to violence, Christians face official and societal
discrimination. Although Egyptian government officials claim that there
is no law or policy that prevents Christians from holding senior
positions, the Coptic Orthodox Christian community faces de facto
discrimination in appointments to high-level government and military
posts. There are only a few Christians in the upper ranks of the
security services and armed forces. There are no Christian governors
out of 27 in the country, after the SCAF approved 11 new governors in
August 2011. Previously there had been one Christian governor. There
are only a handful of elected members of the People's Assembly out of
498 seats, no known university presidents or deans, and very few
legislators or judges. According to the State Department, public
university training programs for Arabic-language teachers exclude non-
Muslims because the curriculum involves the study of the Qur'an. Under
Egyptian law, Muslim men can marry Christian women but Muslim women are
prohibited from marrying Christian men. Contacts between such persons
are often a source of societal tension between Muslim and Christian
communities in Egypt.
For all Christian groups, government permission is required to
build a new church or repair an existing one, and the approval process
for church construction is time-consuming and inflexible. Former
President Mubarak had the authority to approve applications for new
construction of churches. Although most of these applications were
submitted more than five years ago, the majority have not received a
response. Even some permits that have been approved cannot, in fact, be
acted upon because of interference by the state security services at
both the local and national levels.
In 2005, former President Mubarak devolved authority to approve the
renovation and re-construction of churches from the president to the
country's governors. Several years later, some churches continue to
face delays in the issuance of permits. Even in cases where approval to
build or maintain churches has been granted, many Christians complain
that local security services have prevented construction or repair, in
some cases for many years. In addition, local security services have
been accused of being complicit in inciting violence against some
churches undergoing routine maintenance or repair. In recent years, the
government repeatedly has pledged, most recently in October 2011, to
adopt a new law that would apply to all places of worship. In June,
after consulting with religious leaders and other experts, the SCAF
released publicly a draft version of the law. The draft was criticized
widely by Muslims, Christians, and Egyptian human rights groups. While
a subsequent version has not been made public, some reports have
indicated that the revised draft law covers only churches and not other
places of worship.
Converts and Reconverts to Christianity
Although neither the Constitution nor the Penal Code prohibits
proselytizing or conversion, the Egyptian government has used Article
98(f) of the Penal Code to prosecute alleged proselytizing by non-
Muslims. In some instances, converts, who fear government harassment if
they officially register their change in religion from Islam to
Christianity, reportedly have altered their own identification cards
and other official documents to reflect their new religious
affiliation. Over the years, some individuals have been arrested for
falsifying identity documents following conversion. Other converts have
fled the country for fear of government and societal repercussions.
In 2008, Egypt's highest court ruled that 12 individuals who were
born Christian could not be legally prohibited from returning to
Christianity after converting to Islam. However, the court ruled that
their identity documents must list them as ``formerly declared
Muslim,'' thus potentially making them subject to continued
discrimination, police harassment, and societal violence. On July 3,
2011, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that reconverts to
Christianity would be permitted to obtain new national identity
documents indicating their Christian faith without having to be listed
as former Muslims. In October 2011, the first known implementation of
the new ruling was made public when an Egyptian mother's twin sons
received new identity cards identifying them as Christian.
In addition, reports in recent years support claims that there were
cases of Muslim men forcing Coptic Christian women to convert to Islam.
The State Department has asserted that such cases are often disputed
and include ``inflammatory allegations and categorical denials of
kidnapping and rape.'' For example, there were credible cases in which
Coptic girls voluntarily converted to Islam to marry Muslim men, and
subsequently, when the relationship failed, sought to return to
Christianity. Nevertheless, during the reporting period, experts and
human rights groups have found that there were also credible cases
where Coptic Christian women were lured deceptively into marriages with
Muslim men and forced to convert to Islam. According to these reports,
if a woman returns or escapes from the marriage and wants to convert
back to Christianity, she faces the same legal hurdles in changing her
religious affiliation on official identity documents as discussed
above.
In contrast to the re-conversion cases, the Egyptian government
generally does not recognize conversions of Muslims to other religions.
Egyptian courts also have refused to allow Muslims who convert to
Christianity to change their identity cards to reflect their
conversions. In the first such case, brought by Muhammad Hegazy, a
lower court ruled in January 2008 that Muslims are forbidden from
converting from Islam based on principles of Islamic law because
conversion would constitute a disparagement of the official state
religion and entice other Muslims to convert. Hegazy is currently in
hiding and has appealed the ruling. The second such case was brought in
2009 by Maher El-Gohary, who went into hiding for two and a half years
because of threats and harassment by extremists. El-Gohary, with whom
the USCIRF delegation met during its January 2010 visit, fled Egypt in
late February 2011 when his travel ban was lifted just days after
former president Mubarak stepped down. El-Gohary has applied for asylum
in France with his 16 year-old daughter.
Baha'is
All Baha'i institutions and community activities have been banned
since 1960 by a presidential decree. As a result, the approximately
2,000 Baha'is who live in Egypt are unable to meet or engage in
communal religious activities. In the past, Baha'is have been arrested
and imprisoned because of their religious beliefs, often on charges of
insulting Islam. There have been no arrests in recent years. Most
Baha'i community members are known to the state security services, and
many are regularly subject to surveillance and other forms of
harassment. Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Center has issued fatwas over
the years, most recently in 2003, urging the continued ban on the
Baha'i community and condemning Baha'is as apostates.
Intolerance of Baha'is has increased in both the independent and
government-
controlled media in recent years. In March 2009, Muslim villagers
vandalized several Baha'i homes in a village in the Sohag province.
Egyptian human rights groups immediately condemned the violence and
contended that it had been prompted by incitement by a media
commentator who, during a television program, labeled an individual
member of the Baha'i faith an apostate and called for her to be killed.
Three years after the incident, there has been no investigation or
prosecution. In late February 2011, after rumors that the Baha'i
families would be returning to the homes vandalized in 2009, local
villagers set on fire several Baha'i homes in the Sohag province. An
Egyptian human rights group alleged that at least two local security
officers incited local villagers to attack the homes. An investigation
is ongoing.
There has been some legal progress for Baha'is related to identity
documents. In March 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court rejected a
final legal challenge to a 2008 lower court ruling that required the
Egyptian government to issue national identification documents to three
Baha'i plaintiffs containing a dash or other mark in the religion
field. Until this ruling, identity documents permitted registration in
only one of the three officially approved faiths--Islam, Christianity,
or Judaism--thereby effectively preventing Baha'is from gaining the
official recognition necessary to have access to numerous public
services. Since the 2008 decision, the government has issued birth
certificates to at least 120 Baha'is, documents which it previously
refused to issue to them. In addition, approximately 20 to 30 single
male and female Baha'is have received identity cards. However, no
married couples have been able to receive identity cards because the
Egyptian government does not recognize Baha'i marriages. Over the past
few years, some Baha'is lost their jobs and a few young Baha'is were
dismissed from universities because they did not have identity cards.
During the reporting period, representatives of the Baha'i
community have had discussions with the SCAF and transitional
government; however, there have been no long-term resolutions to their
ongoing concerns.
Anti-Semitism and the Jewish Community
In 2011, material vilifying Jews with both historical and new anti-
Semitic stereotypes continued to appear regularly in the state-
controlled and semi-official media. This material includes anti-Semitic
cartoons, images of Jews and Jewish symbols that reference Israel or
Zionism, comparisons of Israeli leaders to Hitler and the Nazis, and
Holocaust denial literature. Egyptian authorities have not taken
adequate steps to combat anti-Semitism in the media, despite official
claims that they have advised journalists to avoid anti-Semitism.
Egyptian officials claim that anti-Semitic statements in the media are
a reaction to Israeli government policy toward Palestinians and do not
reflect historical anti-Semitism. Human rights groups cite persistent,
virulent anti-Semitism in the education system, which increasingly is
under the influence of Islamist extremists, a development the Egyptian
government has not adequately addressed.
The small remnant of Egypt's once sizeable Jewish community, now
consisting of fewer than 100 people, owns communal property and
finances required maintenance largely through private donations. In
2007, Egyptian authorities, including the Minister of Culture and the
head of the Ministry's Supreme Council of Antiquities, pledged to move
forward over the next few years with the restoration of at least seven
synagogues, as well as the possible development of a Jewish museum,
sought by the Jewish community to memorialize Egypt's substantial and
historic Jewish religious and cultural properties and relics.
Restoration of the Maimonides synagogue in Cairo, named after a 12th
century rabbinic scholar, was completed in March 2010, although
Egyptian government authorities canceled an official public dedication
ceremony.
Jehovah's Witnesses
A 1960 presidential decree banned all Jehovah's Witnesses
activities. According to the State Department, there are between 800
and 1,200 Jehovah's Witnesses living in Egypt. While government
interference into the activities of the small community has abated
somewhat since former President Mubarak stepped down in February 2011,
Egyptian authorities continue to conduct surveillance and sometimes
impede their private worship. In past years, secret police monitored
the homes, phones, and private meeting places of members. The Egyptian
government permits Jehovah's Witnesses to meet in private homes in
groups of less than 30 people, despite the community's request to meet
in larger numbers.
For years, the Jehovah's Witnesses have pursued legal recognition
through the court system. Finally, in December 2009, the Seventh
Circuit Administrative Court handed down a verdict denying Jehovah's
Witnesses legal status. The local community continues to appeal the
verdict.
Egypt's Universal Periodic Review
In February 2010, the UN Human Rights Council examined the human
rights record of Egyptian authorities under the Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) procedure. The head of Egypt's delegation stated that
freedom of religion and worship are guaranteed in the constitution and
are not limited by law, despite the reality that, as described above,
in practice the law is arbitrarily and inconsistently applied. The
Egyptian delegation also characterized relations between Muslims and
Coptic Christians as ``healthy and positive,'' attributing recent
sectarian tensions to extremism and asserting that the law is
implemented whenever violent incidents occur.
The recommendations that the Egyptian delegation supported at the
UPR included those that urged the government to take all necessary
measures to guarantee religious freedom, prevent discrimination that
affects this freedom, and promote inter-religious dialogue and
tolerance. The delegation rejected recommendations which urged the
Egyptian government to remove any categorization of religion on
official government documents and to eliminate the legal and
bureaucratic restrictions that complicate an individual's right to
choose his or her religion. Despite supporting a number of
recommendations from the UPR, the Egyptian government has made little
progress in implementing them in practice.
Positive Developments in Egypt
During the transition, there have been some positive developments.
In January 2012, the Interior Ministry stated publicly that it worked
with the SCAF on an extensive security plan to protect all churches
around the celebration of Coptic Christmas. According to some reports,
members of the Muslim Brotherhood also have participated in protecting
churches. The 2011-2012 holiday season passed without incident. In May,
the government began to re-open more than 50 churches that had been
closed, in some cases for years. In March, the Egyptian government
released Coptic Christian priest Mitaus Wahba from prison, where he had
served three years of a five-year sentence for presiding over a wedding
of a Christian convert from Islam.
In the aftermath of the October Maspero violence, the government
took steps to reduce discrimination in the Penal Code. On October 15,
the SCAF issued a decree amending Egypt's Penal Code to prohibit
discrimination on the basis of religion, gender, language, faith, or
race. The decree also delineated prison sentences and specific fines
for discriminatory acts, as well as failure to prevent discrimination.
These included more severe penalties for government officials found to
be complicit in discrimination. These new Penal Code provisions, if
applied, could strengthen the Egyptian constitution's ban on
discrimination. At the end of the reporting period, however, there were
no known cases in which the government applied the new amendments.
During the reporting period, Al-Azhar University spearheaded a
number of initiatives and published statements expressing support for
freedom of religion or belief in Egypt. In January 2012, Al-Azhar Grand
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb put forward a ``Bill of Rights'' that discussed
the importance of freedom of belief and expression, among other things,
ahead of the drafting of the constitution. The statement asserts that
``freedom of belief'' and equal citizenship rights for all Egyptians
are the cornerstones of a new modern society. The statement reportedly
took three months to gain support of a number of diverse religious and
political leaders in Egypt, as well as other domestic and international
actors.
In June 2011, the Grand Sheikh released an 11-point program, known
as the ``Al-Azhar Document,'' setting out Al-Azhar's vision for Egypt's
democratic future. The document endorsed a democratic government in
Egypt, placing governance in the hands of the civil or secular powers
of the parliament, the executive, and the judiciary. The document also
expressed support for universal human rights and emphasized that
religious minorities should be able to practice their religion freely
and enjoy their rights as citizens in full equality with the majority.
Some human rights groups have expressed concern over the document's
vagueness, pointing out the lack of safeguards needed to prevent human
rights abuses. Moreover, while both the January 2012 and June 2011
documents call for full respect and protection of the three ``heavenly
religions''--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--no other faiths in Egypt
were mentioned.
U.S. Policy
For many years, U.S. policy toward Egypt had focused on fostering
strong bilateral relations, continuing security and military
cooperation, maintaining regional stability, and sustaining the 1979
Camp David peace accords. Successive administrations viewed Egypt as a
key ally in the region. Until a few years ago, Egypt was the second
largest recipient of U.S. aid; it now ranks fourth, behind Afghanistan,
Israel, and Pakistan. In recent years, including during the reporting
period, the Obama administration and Congress have increased efforts to
urge the Egyptian government to make more expeditious progress on
economic and political reforms, including on human rights and religious
freedom issues. During the past year, the relationship encountered a
number of challenges, the most serious of which started in December
2011 when Egyptian authorities raided the offices of five foreign pro-
democracy NGOs, four of which are American, and subsequently charged
staff members with working without a license and receiving unauthorized
foreign funding.
During the first few days of the January 2011 uprisings in Egypt,
the Obama administration remained supportive of the Mubarak regime.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed confidence that the regime
was stable and urged peaceful protests by the Egyptian people. As the
demonstrations continued and grew, high-level U.S. government officials
expressed concern about incidents of government violence against
peaceful protestors, and President Obama advocated that Mubarak step
down. Mubarak did so on February 11, 2011. In March 2011, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton visited Egypt and the U.S. government announced
that $100 million in unspent economic support funds were being
reprogrammed to support economic growth and development, in addition to
$65 million being reprogrammed to support democratic development in
Egypt.
In the current reporting period, the U.S. government highlighted
religious freedom concerns in Egypt through public statements and
remarks more frequently than in previous years. For example, in January
2012, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Assistant Secretary
of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner each
publicly raised a number of religious freedom issues while visiting
Egypt. On January 6, 2012, President Obama released a statement on
Coptic Christmas eve asserting that in Egypt and elsewhere ``freedom of
religion, the protection of people of all faiths, and the ability to
worship as you choose are critical to a peaceful, inclusive and
thriving society.'' In October 2011, statements from both President
Obama and Secretary of State Clinton expressed deep concern about the
Maspero violence and called for a prompt investigation, including into
allegations of excessive security and police force. On May 19, 2011,
President Obama delivered a major policy speech on the Middle East and
North Africa and specifically raised the importance of freedom of
religion, respecting religious minorities, and the plight of Coptic
Christians in Egypt. On January 1, 2011, President Obama issued a
strong statement condemning the New Year's Day bombing of a church
targeting Christians in Alexandria and offered assistance to the
Egyptian government to bring the perpetrators to justice.
U.S. assistance reflects the recognition of Egypt's continued and
crucial role in ensuring Arab-Israeli peace. P.L. 112-74, the
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, appropriated $1.3 billion in
Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance and $250 million for
Economic Support Fund (ESF) assistance. For the first time, the law
requires the Secretary of State to certify that the Egyptian government
is using the funds appropriated through the Foreign Military Financing
program to support ``the transition to civilian government including
holding free and fair elections'' and ``implementing policies to
protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due
process of law.'' The law also includes a national security interest
waiver from the certification requirements. In seeking to meet the
certification requirement, the State Department must report about
positive progress and trends in Egypt only on the requirement about
policies to protect freedom of religion. USCIRF worked with
Congressional offices on including freedom of religion as one of the
certification factors.
In recent years, only a small portion of U.S. programming has
supported initiatives in areas related to religious freedom, including
funding for programs of the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social
Services that work with Coptic and Muslim community groups in Upper
Egypt, as well as support for NGOs that monitor the country's media for
sectarian bias.During the past year, the Obama administration reversed
a controversial 2009 decision that restricted USAID funding for
Egyptian civil society to those organizations whose official NGO
registration has been approved by the Egyptian government. Direct
grants to registered Egyptian NGOs previously had to be vetted by the
Egyptian government. As a consequence, many new Egyptian NGOs did not
seek formal registration, and instead formed a civil corporation, to
avoid unnecessary government interference and oversight.
In July 2011, the Egyptian government launched an investigation
into U.S. funding of civil corporations, suggesting that it violates
Egyptian law. This cast serious doubt on the ability of the U.S.
government to support the programs and activities it was already
funding. The investigations culminated in December 2011 with raids on
the offices of four American, and one European, pro-democracy NGOs and
confiscation of materials from these offices. In January 2012, the
Egyptian government announced criminal charges against 43 personnel,
including 16 Americans, and issued travel bans against those remaining
in the country, including seven Americans. Despite Egyptian judicial
authorities lifting the travel ban in late February, staff members from
these NGOs, including from the International Republican Institute, the
National Democratic Institute, and Freedom House, face criminal charges
and possible prison terms for working illegally in the country without
a license and receiving and using unauthorized foreign funding. Since
the raids on NGOs in December, an increasing number of members of
Congress have advocated cutting off all U.S. aid to Egypt, although, at
the end of the reporting period, no measure has been passed in Congress
prohibiting aid to Egypt.
After former President Mubarak was removed from power, several
congressional resolutions were introduced in the House and Senate in
the 112th Congress to: encourage religious freedom (H.Res.459); express
solidarity with the Egyptian people's democratic aspirations (H.Res.
88); respect human rights and the freedoms of religion and expression
(H.Res. 200); support democracy, universal rights and the peaceful
transition to a representative government (S. Res. 44); condemn the New
Year's day attack on the Coptic church in Alexandria and urge the
Egyptian government to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators
(S.Res.22); and support democracy, human rights, and civil liberties
(S. Res. 586).
In September 2011, in its most recent International Religious
Freedom report, the State Department again concluded that religious
freedom conditions remained poor, similar to its 2010 conclusion. From
2007 to 2009, the State Department reported that religious freedom
conditions in Egypt had declined. This assertion did not result in any
significant change in U.S. policy towards Egypt other than the increase
in public comments and statements discussed above.
Recommendations
As described above, the Egyptian government has engaged in and
tolerated religious freedom violations during the transition period.
During the reporting period, violence targeting Coptic Orthodox
Christians increased and the Egyptian government failed to convict
those responsible for the violence. In addition, the Egyptian
government has failed to protect religious minorities from violent
attacks during the transitional period when minority communities have
been increasingly vulnerable. During the transition period, military
and security forces used excessive force and live ammunition targeting
Christian demonstrators and places of worship resulting in dozens of
deaths and hundreds of injuries. Despite claims by the Supreme Council
of Armed Forces that it dismantled the state security apparatus,
partially lifted the state of emergency, and addressed some ongoing
religious freedom concerns, discriminatory laws and policies continue
to have a negative impact on freedom of religion or belief in Egypt.
Accordingly, based on the Egyptian government's systematic,
ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, USCIRF is
recommending for the second year in a row that Egypt be designated a
country of particular concern, or CPC. Pursuant to the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-74), the U.S. government should
not certify the disbursement of military assistance to Egypt until the
Egyptian government demonstrates that it is using the funds
appropriated through the Foreign Military Financing program to
implement policies that protect freedom of religion and related human
rights in Egypt. The U.S. government also should direct a portion of
existing military assistance and emergency economic assistance to
enhance security for religious minority communities. In addition, the
United States should press the Egyptian transitional government, as
well as the future civilian government and newly elected parliament, to
implement a series of reforms to advance freedom of religion or belief
and related human rights.
I. Withholding Military Assistance and Directing a Targeted Amount of
Military and Economic Assistance During Egypt's Transition
In addition to designating Egypt as a CPC, the U.S. government
should:
pursuant to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012
(P.L. 112-74), not certify the disbursement of the appropriated $1.3
billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Egypt until the Egyptian
government demonstrates that it is using FMF funds to implement
policies that protect freedom of religion and related human rights in
Egypt;
once the Egyptian government so demonstrates, ensure that
a portion of the FMF funding for the Egyptian government is used to
help the Egyptian police assess security needs and develop and
implement a comprehensive and effective plan for dedicated police
protection for religious minority communities and their places of
worship, particularly Coptic Orthodox Christians, Sufi Muslims, and
Jews, in consultation with these communities' representatives; and
conduct or support specialized training, either in Egypt
or abroad, for Egyptian military and police forces on human rights
standards and non-lethal responses to crowd control and to quell
sectarian violence.
The U.S. Congress should:
require the Departments of State and Defense to report
every 90 days on the Egyptian transitional government's progress on the
issues described in this section.
II. Ensuring that Responsibility for Religious Affairs Not Fall Within
the Jurisdiction of the New Egyptian Domestic Security Agency
The U.S. government should urge the Egyptian government to:
repeal fully the state of emergency, in existence since
1981, in order to allow for the full consolidation of the rule of law
in Egypt;
ensure that de facto responsibility for religious affairs
does not fall under the jurisdiction of the domestic security agency,
with the exception of espionage cases or cases involving the use or
advocacy of violence, including conspiracy to commit acts of terror;
pass a unified law that would subject all places of
worship to the same transparent, non-discriminatory, and efficient
regulations regarding construction and maintenance, and continue to
take special measures to preserve and restore Coptic Orthodox and other
Christian properties and antiquities that have been subject to societal
violence and official neglect; and
consistent with the March and December 2011 resolutions
of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly on
``combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of,
and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against
persons based on religion or belief,'' repeal Article 98(f) of the
Penal Code, which ``prohibits citizens from ridiculing or insulting
heavenly religions or inciting sectarian strife'' and, in the interim,
provide the constitutional and international guarantees of the rule of
law and due process for those individuals charged with violating
Article 98(f).
III. Implementing Additional Reform in Order to Comply with
International Human Rights Standards
The U.S. government should urge the transitional Egyptian
government and newly elected parliament to:
ensure that a new constitution has robust protections for
the right to freedom of religion or belief consistent with
international human rights law, including:
recognizing the universal right to the freedom of thought,
conscience, and religion or belief for every individual and
every religious or belief community;
recognizing that each person's freedom to hold and to
manifest any religion or belief, or not to hold any religious
belief, should not be limited, aside from the narrow exceptions
delineated in international law;
affirming that the right to freedom of religion or belief
includes the right to have, adopt, or change one's own religion
or belief without coercion and to manifest it publicly, as well
as to persuade others to change their beliefs or affiliations
voluntarily;
ensuring that the rights and benefits of citizenship are not
limited to individuals belonging to particular religious
communities; and
ensuring that all persons are equal before the law and are
entitled to the equal protection of law, regardless of religion
or belief, and guaranteeing all persons equal and effective
protection against discrimination on religious grounds;
ensure the neutral non-discriminatory application of any
laws according legal status and benefits to religious communities, even
if one faith is declared as the official state religion;
establish a special unit in the Office of the Public
Prosecutor dedicated to investigating acts of violence against Egyptian
citizens on the basis of religion or belief, vigorously prosecuting and
bringing to justice perpetrators, and ensuring compensation for
victims;
address incitement to imminent violence and
discrimination against disfavored Muslims and non-Muslims by:
prosecuting in regular criminal courts government-funded
clerics, government officials, or individuals who incite
violence against Muslim minority communities or individual
members of non-Muslim religious minority communities;
disciplining or dismissing government-funded clerics who
espouse intolerance;
publicly and officially refuting incitement to violence and
discrimination by clerics and the government-controlled media
against Muslim minority communities, such as the Qur'anists,
and members of non-Muslim religious minorities, such as
Baha'is; and
rescinding any previously-issued fatwas by Al-Azhar that are
discriminatory toward or incite violence against Muslim
minority communities or non-Muslim religious minority
communities;
discontinue the use of reconciliation sessions as a
bypass for punishing perpetrators, commensurate with the gravity of the
crime and in accordance with the rule of law;
practicing their faith, officially grant legal
personality to these and other minority faiths, and permit these faiths
to congregate in public places of worship without government
interference;
remove mention of religious affiliation from national
identity documents;
cease all messages of hatred and intolerance in the
government-controlled media and take active measures to promote
understanding and respect for members of minority religious
communities;
take all appropriate steps to prevent and punish acts of
anti-Semitism, including condemnation of anti-Semitic acts, and, while
vigorously protecting freedom of expression, counteract anti-Semitic
rhetoric and other organized anti-Semitic activities;
permit any Egyptian citizen to learn voluntarily the
Coptic language in the public school system; and
investigate claims of police negligence and inadequate
prosecution of those involved in the Al-Kosheh case, as well as other
recent instances of violence targeting individuals on account of their
religion or belief, particularly members of the vulnerable Coptic
Orthodox Christian community.
IV. Ensuring that U.S. Government Aid Promotes Prompt and Genuine
Political and Legal Reforms and is Offered Directly to Egyptian Civil
Society Groups
The U.S. government should:
provide direct support to human rights and other civil
society or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) without vetting by the
Egyptian government;
urge the Egyptian government to ensure that NGOs engaged
in human rights work can pursue their activities without government
interference, and monitor and report to what extent this is
accomplished; and
expand support of initiatives to advance human rights,
promote religious tolerance, and foster civic education among all
Egyptians, including support for:
revising all textbooks and other educational materials to
remove any language or images that promote enmity, intolerance,
hatred, or violence toward any group of persons based on faith,
gender, ethnicity, or nationality, and including the concepts
of tolerance and respect for human rights of all persons,
including religious freedom, in all school curricula,
textbooks, and teacher training;
civic education and public awareness programs that reflect
the multi-confessional nature of Egyptian society and the
diversity of Egypt's religious past;
efforts by Egyptian and international NGOs to review Egyptian
educational curricula and textbooks for messages of hatred,
intolerance, and the advocacy of violence, and to monitor equal
access to education by girls and boys regardless of religion or
belief; and
preserving and restoring Egyptian Jewish properties and
antiquities in publicly accessible sites.
V. Promoting Freedom of Religion and Belief and Related Human Rights in
Multilateral Fora
The U.S. government should:
call on the Egyptian government to comply with and fully
implement recommendations from the UN Human Rights Council's February
2010 Universal Periodic Review of Egypt, including those related to
freedom of religion or belief; and
urge the Egyptian government to invite, provide specific
dates, and admit UN special procedures mandate holders who are waiting
for an invitation, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of
Religion or Belief, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
Defenders, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Dissenting Statement of Commissioner al-Hibri:
So much is happening is Egypt this year. The peaceful revolution
has been unfortunately marred by violence that spread across Egypt from
Maspero to Aswan to Port Said. Over 850 Egyptians have died during this
period, around 6,000 were injured, and the dust has not settled yet.
The transitional military government has not done enough to stem the
violence and, as the report points out, together with the official
media, it encouraged sectarian violence by counterrevolutionaries and
extremists in Maspero.
At the same time, al-Azhar, the venerable religious institution,
extended its hand in dialogue to the Coptic leadership, including the
late Pope Shenouda. Also, Egyptians spoke loud and clear in the streets
and on private television, rejecting sectarian and other violence. The
photo on the cover of the report shows average Egyptians, Muslim and
Coptic, mourning the victims of the Maspero violence. Many Egyptians
carried signs saying ``Muslim + Christian= Egyptian.''Now Egyptians are
voting for a new parliament, and a new government and constitution. I
believe in the fundamental fairness of the Egyptian people and their
ability to ultimately rebuild a nation based on religious freedom.
After all, this is a tradition that has deep roots in their history.
For this reason, I respectfully dissent from designating Egypt as a
CPC at a time when the whole nation is undergoing indiscriminate
violence. I would also revisit the situation after the election of a
democratic government and the drafting of the new constitution.
Prepared Statement of Michele Clark, Adjunct Professor, the Elliott
School of International Affairs, The George Washington University
Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to be invited to testify once more on
this most important issue of the disappearances, forced conversions and
forced marriages of Coptic Christian women and girls. I would like to
express my thanks to the Commission for holding this hearing and
launching this new report. I would also like to express my thanks to
Christian Solidarity International, and in particular to Dr. John
Eibner, CEO, for championing this issue and sponsoring the research and
writing of the report we are discussing here. I would also like to
express my thanks to Nadia Ghaly, the co-author of this report, who is
not able to be here today, for her invaluable collaboration in this
effort.
My testimony is based directly on the report introduced today,
``The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages of Coptic
Christian Women and Girls in Egypt II'', and I would therefore like to
request that the report be included along with my testimony into the
record of these hearings.
Coptic women in Egypt are disappearing from their homes, their
schools and their jobs. They go missing while returning from church,
picking up their children from school or traveling to the sick bed of
an aging parent. They are often held as captives, subjected to physical
and psychological abuse in the form of rapes, beatings, domestic labor
without pay, forced marriage and conversion to Islam. Their lives, and
the lives of their families, are severely damaged.
The Egyptian government has distanced itself from any
responsibility or culpability. Those who dispute these claims assert
that the disappearances are merely willful acts of young women seeking
to leave oppressive home environments and that there is no criminal
activity involved.
To investigate these claims, Christian Solidarity International and
the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights Commissioned a report written in
November 2009 which asserted that Coptic women and underage girls are
deceptively lured into forced marriages with Muslim men and conversion
to Islam; that the Egyptian authorities dismiss the criminality of such
events; that the young women are presumed to be complicit in their
disappearances; that the disappearances follow consistent patterns;
that the Egyptian government rarely restores their Christian identities
to women who have been forcibly converted to Islam.
This report marked the beginning of renewed discussion on the
topic, including a hearing in front of this very Commission last
summer.
Other US Government agencies were more skeptical.
For example, the 2010 US Department of States Annual Trafficking in
Persons Report referenced our report, and stated that ``During the
reporting period, an international NGO released a report about alleged
forced marriages of Coptic females in Egypt, indicating an allegation
of forced prostitution, though the allegations have not been
confirmed.''
The 2010 Department of State's International Religious Freedom
Report also referred to our report, stating,
``As in previous years, there were occasional claims of Muslim
men forcing Coptic women and girls to convert to Islam. Reports
of such cases were disputed and often included inflammatory
allegations and categorical denials of kidnapping and rape. In
November 2009 an international Christian advocacy group
published a report regarding alleged cases of forced
conversion; however, well-respected local human rights groups
were unable to verify such cases and found it extremely
difficult to determine whether compulsion was used, as most
cases involved a female Copt who converted to Islam when she
married a male Muslim. Reports of such cases almost never
appear in the local media.''
Before entering in the details of the new report, I would like to
make one important point: Claims that all disappearances are the result
of impulsive behaviors and not abduction reflect a misunderstanding of
the force, fraud and coercion that are characteristic of the
relationships between young Coptic women and girls and their captors.
Both Nadia Ghaly and I recognize that not all disappearances are the
result of abductions, that not all marriages are forced, and that some
conversions can be consensual. We have spoken with a young woman who
quite candidly left her husband because he beat her while her make
Muslim neighbor was kind. She eventually returned to her family.
However, and notwithstanding the ambiguity of many situations we
encountered, we claim that it is not possible to dismiss each case in
the 2009 report on the grounds that the girls willingly and left their
families.
And, since this first report, it is possible to say that stories of
abductions and disappearances of Coptic women and girls are for the
first time garnering attention in the mainstream media. On December 15,
2010, the BBC aired a documentary entitled, ``Christian Minority under
Pressure in Egypt.'' In the opening scene, a father relates to the
interviewer that there will be no Christmas in their home this year;
their daughter, who loved Christmas, was abducted and has never
returned.
On June 15, 2011, Yasmin el Rashdi, writing New York Review of
Books on June 15, 2011, quotes a parish priest who raises the issue of
the disappearance of young Coptic women.
``There are no sizable attacks,'' he said, ``but each week
there are incidents of women having the cross grabbed from
their necks as they walk in the streets. In this very
neighborhood people are still being insulted as they leave
church; and we still have young girls disappearing, kidnapped,
being harassed for what they are wearing or for bearing the
cross tattooed on their wrists.''
Since the publication of our first report, the political landscape
has changed considerably in Egypt. The Coptic community has become more
vulnerable to persecution as a result of an upsurge in militant Islam
following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarkek. Emigration is
increasing and asylum petitions in both the United States and other
countries are on the rise. Young Coptic women are particularly
vulnerable. Exploitation thrives in times of political unrest.
Among the most vulnerable members of this beleaguered community are
women and young girls. Young Coptic women are applying for asylum on
the basis of fear of being abducted and forced to convert and marry. In
September 2011, I testified in federal court as an expert witness in
one such asylum case. Asylum was granted for a young Coptic woman on
the basis of fear of being abducted should she return. Other
immigration lawyers attest to recent favorable asylum decisions based
on threat or fear of abduction. We have here, as witnesses in this
hearing, two young women who have sought and received asylum because of
abduction and fear of abductions. These cases are not allegations.
A SECOND REPORT
Concerned with the escalating violence against the Copts in Egypt
and dissatisfied with the lack of response from the US Government,
Christian Solidarity International commissioned a second report, which
we are launching here today. This new report substantiates our earlier
findings. In addition, we have observed changes in trends and patterns,
which reinforce the pre-meditation of the captors.
The goal of our second report is straightforward: To continue to
support the claims of disappearances, abductions and forced conversions
and forced marriages of Coptic women in Egypt and continue to challenge
the use of the term "allegation" in US government reports.
The new findings in the report are based on:
1. Interviews with four Egyptian lawyers. These lawyers
provided access to claims filed by families on behalf of Coptic
women who had disappeared as well as young women who had
returned from a forced marriage and conversion and were
attempting to regain their Christian identities;
2. Interviews with representatives of civil society
organizations;
3. Interviews with family members of young women who have
disappeared. Some of these individuals are represented by
attorneys;
4. A review of Internet sites reporting the disappearance of
Coptic girls. The authors considered only those cases with
appropriate documentation, including police reports.
5. Interviews with women who have returned from a forced
marriage and conversion.
All interviews were conducted from November 16-25, 2011, in Cairo,
Egypt. Only verifiable cases are included in this report. Each of these
cases is verifiable through attorney files, personal interviews and
police reports. The real names of young women and their family members
and other identifying details are not published in this report in order
to protect their identities.
KEY FINDINGS
1. The number of disappearances and abductions appear to be increasing.
Exact numbers of cases throughout the country are difficult to come
by for reasons analyzed below. However, each of the attorneys
interviewed for this report indicated an increase in his caseload since
January 2011. Four attorneys collectively report a total of over 550
cases of abductions, disappearances and petitions to restore Christian
identity following abductions, forced marriages and forced conversions
over a five-year period. Furthermore, one attorney interviewed for this
report indicates first-hand knowledge of over 1,600 cases of Christians
petitioning to have their conversions to Islam overturned in recent
years, with 60% of this number being women; in other words, 960 women
are petitioning to have their Christian identities restored.
Data Collection Challenges
There is no systematic data repository within the Coptic community
documenting the disappearances of young women. Priests or bishops keep
records of activities within their churches and communities. Attorneys
maintain their own caseloads. Activists maintain different websites but
there is no cross-referencing with other data sources.
Families of victims do not report all cases. The police do not
register all complaints filed by family members. In many cases, family
members of missing young women reported that the police would not file
a report until a lawyer intervened. In other cases, families do not
file reports because they do not believe that their claims will be
taken seriously or because they fear retribution by the authorities.
Not all families are financially able to secure the services of an
attorney; while not a guarantee of results, the presence of an attorney
would at least enable the filing of a legitimate claim.
2. Fewer girls appear to be returning to their families
Our 2009 report focused on young women who had returned from forced
marriages and conversions and were struggling to regain their Christian
identities. They reported instances of abuse and forced domestic
servitude; one women reported being prostituted by her captor. Since
then, there has been a discernible change in the dynamics of the
disappearances of young Coptic women. Attorneys handling such cases
report that fewer young women are being returned to their families.
There is speculation that young women might be trafficked overseas, but
attorneys and activists have not yet been able to document this
phenomenon.
3. Social Media
Many families are learning about their daughters' conversion to
Islam through new Internet sites which document the conversion to Islam
of Christian girls. Increasing websites are appearing which feature
fully veiled young Coptic women and girls announcing their conversion
to Islam. On the other hand, Coptic families are beginning to post
announcements of disappearances also on the internet.
4. Minors and mothers of young children appear to be increasingly
targeted.
In addition to disappearances of single young women over the age of
18, lawyers report an increase in the abductions of mothers with young
children. While the age of consent to convert to a different religion
is eighteen in Egypt, there are increasing reports that children of
mothers who are forced to convert are also registered as Muslims. Even
if a mother returns to her community, the children are considered by
law to be Muslim and will remain Muslim.
5. Disappearances are organized and planned.
Attorneys, social workers and members of the clergy interviewed for
this and the previous report all attest to organized and systematic
planning in cases of missing Coptic women. Tactics to lure young women
into relationships follow similar patters throughout the country. One
lawyer interviewed for this report stated that the same man's name
occurred in several police reports; he married five Christian women who
subsequently converted to Islam. Family members report that their
daughters or sisters were befriended by a schoolmate, a neighbor, or an
older mother figure over time. Lawyers indicate that their clients
report that the families of the captors benefited materially;
frequently, family members were provided with new apartments or
furniture, and unemployable young men were given jobs.
6. Abductors target vulnerable women and girls, and girls in vulnerable
and unprotected moments.
The concluding observations of the UN's Commission on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
express concern ``at the very limited information and statistics
provided about vulnerable groups of women and girls'' in Egypt.
Coptic women and girls are vulnerable in the following ways:
1. They are members of a religious minority.
2. They come from closed, insular communities.
3. Their minority status is the basis for legal and social
discrimination
Coptic women and girls are vulnerable because of their minority
status, yet little effort is made by the Egyptian Government to
document this vulnerability or its consequences.
7. Captors sever contact between victims and their families.
The first task of the captor is to come between a young woman and
members of her family. They can do this by force, taking away her phone
and family connections. They lock her up, denying her any mobility.
They threaten her, telling her that, even if she runs away, her family
will never accept her; they will punish her and put her in a monastery.
Eventually a young woman is brainwashed and believes that she will be
safe only with her Muslim captor. Ultimately, she will be truly safe
only if she converts to Islam. Because there is no obligation for a
Christian woman who marries a Muslim man to convert to Islam, one
attorney claims that conversion is the ultimate goal of the captivity.
8. Captors make use of measures involving force, fraud and coercion.
A young woman consents to a glass of sugar cane juice and the
attention of a man whose words promise a life of love, ease and
provision. Another woman shares a with a mother who is also waiting for
children after school. And a third seeks friendship and escape from a
harsh and sometimes abusive home environment. Victims who have not
literally been abducted nonetheless did not consent to being ripped
from their family without the possibility of ever seeing them again;
nor do they consent to being forcibly converted to a religion other
than their own. They do not consent to a life of captivity within one
small apartment, every outing supervised by a member of her new
husband's family. They said yes to the things that young women say yes
to: friendship, romance, hope, a future, safety and security. It is
reasonable to expect that most young women would respond in precisely
the same way as many young Coptic girls responded to these offers of
friendship or romance.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In developing recommendations for this report, the authors
consulted with attorneys and civil society actors in Egypt in order to
assess what government actions might support their efforts to protect
Coptic women from falling into captivity and, as a result, into forced
marriages and conversions. There was considerable consensus as to steps
that the government might take.
Egyptian Government
1. Local police stations will take seriously and file reports
on all claims of disappearance of Coptic women and girls. All
claims will be investigated and family members kept appraised
of the progress of each of these cases.
2. The Egyptian national government will request an annual
accounting of all cases of disappearances including open and
ongoing cases as well as any prosecutions that resulted from
local police investigations.
3.The Egyptian government will create a registry to document
the disappearance of minors.
4.Children of parents who convert will retain the religion of
their birth until they are 18 years of age, the legal age of
consent.
5.The legal age for conversion to Islam will be raised to 18,
which is the age of legal consent in Egypt.
6.Laws which penalize discrimination based on religion in the
areas of education, employment and the media will be enacted.
Coptic Church
1. The Coptic Church will maintain a central registry
documenting instances of disappearances, abductions and forced
marriages and conversions of Coptic women.
2. The Coptic Community will educate families and young women
on the recruitment and deception patterns that lead to
captivity.
International Community
1. A legal defense fund will be created to enable Coptic
families to secure the presence of an attorney.
2. International or national agencies assessing the situation
of Coptic women in Egypt will recognize that coercion and fraud
are represented in most cases of disappearance, forced
marriages and forced conversions, all of which obviate the
consent of the victim.
3. International organizations will recognize both the scope
and scale of the problem and no longer refer to such offenses
as mere ``allegations.''
Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission, I thank you for your
time and interest in this very important matter. I look forward to
answering your questions.
``TELL MY MOTHER THAT I MISS HER''
The Disappearance, Forced Marriages and Forced Conversions of Coptic
Christian women in Egypt (II)
July 2012
A Report Commissioned by Christian Solidarity International,
Written by Michele Clark and Nadia Ghaly
[The title is a direct quote from a young Coptic woman. Her father
recorded a telephone conversation in which he was able to talk to her
after her abduction.]
INTRODUCTION
In November 2009, Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and the
Coptic Foundation for Human Rights (CFHR) published a pioneering report
entitled The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages of
Coptic Christian Women in Egypt, co-authored by anti-trafficking expert
Michele Clark and Coptic human rights activist Nadia Ghaly. \1\
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\1\ Michele Clark & Nadia Ghaly, The Disappearance, Forced
Conversions and Forced Marriages of Coptic Christian Women in Egypt,
Christian Solidarity International and Coptic Foundation for Human
Rights, November 1999. http://www.csi-int.org/pdfs/
csi_coptic_report.pdf.
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The purpose of the report was to stimulate action-oriented
discussion within the international human rights community, especially
within major anti-trafficking and religious liberty institutions, where
the issue had hitherto been a taboo, touching, as it does, a raw
religio-political nerve in both the Islamic world and the West.
News of disappearances and forced marriages and conversions began
to reach the West in the 1970s. At that time, Egypt's President Anwar
Sadat had unleashed forces of Islamism in the hope of strengthening the
social and cultural foundations of the Egyptian state, following the
failure of the socialist Pan-Arab ideology of his predecessor, Gamal
Abdel Nasser. In 1976, two years before Sadat ordered his arrest and
internal exile, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the late Pope
Shenouda III, protested against the abuse of Christian females,
reportedly stating: ``There is pressure being practiced to convert
Coptic girls to Islam and marry them under terror to Muslim husbands.''
\2\ On March 16, 2004, the Coptic Pope again addressed this issue,
indicating that he had received ``countless'' letters of complaint, and
urged the police to investigate cases. \3\
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\2\ Mary Abdelmassih. ``Family of Abducted Christian Coptic
Teenager Assaulted by Muslim Mob,'' AINA, Cairo, June 9, 2009.
\3\ ``Coptic Pope Denounces Forced Conversion of Coptic Girls,'' US
Copts Association, March 25, 2004, http://groups.yahoo.com/group./
OrthodoxNews/message/671. Cornelius Hulsman, ``Blowing Up Rumors on
Forced Conversions of Coptic Girls,'' Arab-West Report, July 26, 2008,
www.arabwestreport.info/year-2004/week-12/17-blowing-rumors-forced-
conversions-coptic-girls.
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In 1999, a Freedom House report on religious liberty in Egypt,
based largely on a fact-finding mission, stated:
There are credible reports from many areas of Egypt that
militant Muslims kidnap or manipulate Christian girls into
converting. This can even involve girls below the legal age in
Egyptian law at which a person can change his or her religion.
\4\
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\4\ Egypt's Endangered Christians, A Report by the Center for
Religious Freedom of Freedom House, 1999, p. 51.
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The 21st century has seen a dramatic increase in cases reaching
Egyptian lawyers and Coptic human rights organizations.
The 2009 Clark and Ghaly report made an impact. The U.S. Department
of State's Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 acknowledged such cases
for the first time, stating:
During the reporting period, an international NGO released a
report about alleged forced marriages of Coptic females in
Egypt, including an allegation of forced prostitution, though
the allegations have not been confirmed. \5\
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\5\ U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2010,
``Egypt.'' http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/142759.htm
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The Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report
also spoke to the issue for the first time in 2010, stating:
As in previous years, there were occasional claims of Muslim
men forcing Coptic women and girls to convert to Islam. Reports
of such cases were disputed and often included inflammatory
allegation and categorical denials of kidnapping and rape. In
November 2009 an international Christian advocacy group
published a report regarding alleged cases of forced
conversion; however, well-respected local human rights groups
were unable to verify such cases and found it extremely
difficult to determine whether compulsion was used, as most
cases involved a female Copt who converted to Islam when she
married a male Muslim. Reports of such cases almost never
appear in the local media. \6\
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\6\ U.S. Department of State, International Religious Freedom
Report 2010, ``Egypt'', p. 26, http://www.state.gov/documents/
organization/171733.pdf.
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The State Department's assertion that cases remain unverified,
without providing evidence of an attempt to verify, appeared to be
calculated to put a particularly sensitive political issue to rest,
without regard for the well-being of the female victims. Therefore, CSI
commissioned Ms. Clark and Ms. Ghaly to undertake a second fact-finding
visit to Egypt in November 2011.
All the cases in their new report, entitled Tell My Mother I Miss
Her, are based on interviews conducted by the co-authors with victims,
families members, church workers and to attorneys. All the cases have
been reported to Egyptian authorities. Most are on-going cases in the
Egyptian courts and, as such, all evidence a matter of record. Each
case is documented and authentic. However, in order to protect the
identity of victims and their families, all identifying information has
been removed given that this report is intended for broad
dissemination.
Tell My Mother I Miss Her should be read in conjunction with the
co-author's 2009 report.
CSI's aim in publishing their latest finding remains constant. It
is to:
challenge human rights activists and institutions, especially
those whose mandate includes women's rights and trafficking in
persons, to undertake, as a matter of urgency, further research
into this form of gender and religious based violence against
Coptic women and girls in Egypt. \7\
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\7\ Clark & Ghaly, p. 1. http://www.csi-int.org/pdfs/
csi_coptic_report.pdf.
The events of the so-called ``Arab Spring'' swept Egypt's President
Hosni Mubarak out of power, but they have scarcely begun to address the
deep-seated Muslim and male supremacism that permeates large swathes of
Egyptian society and provides the cultural context of the forcible
marriages and conversions. This twin-headed cultural hydra of contempt
for women and for non-Muslims was on display during demonstrations at
Tahrir Square when the western journalists Laura Logan (ABC News) and
Caroline Sinz (France 3) were brutally sexually assaulted by mobs of
men. In the case of Ms. Logan, the assailants accused her--
incorrectly--of being a Jew. \8\
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\8\ ``Lara Logan Breaks Silence on Cairo Assault,'' CBS 60 Minutes,
April 28, 2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-
18560_162_20058368.html?pageNum=2&tag=contentMain;contentBody.
``Journalists Sexually Assaulted Covering Egypt Unrest,'' AFP, November
24, 2011.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/
ALeqM5h9r5Rf6FcTkoaMQrBv-QN86b42Wg.
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The fact that Ms. Logan is American and Ms. Sinz is French
guaranteed major media coverage and international condemnation. But
Egyptian female victims, especially non-Muslims, do not command such
media attention nor the sympathies of western policy-makers. The sexual
abuse and servitude of non-Muslim women in Egypt tends to elicit ritual
denials and obfuscations that are reminiscent of the customary public
reaction to such abuse of non-white women in America during the days of
racial segregation.
In his historic message to the Muslim world, delivered from Cairo
in June 2009, President Barack Obama stated:
I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say
openly things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are
said only behind closed doors. \9\
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\9\ ``Remarks by the President on a New Beginning,'' Cairo, June
4, 2009. http://www. whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-
President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/.
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CSI intends to continue researching this issue and to speak openly
about it. We will also continue to encourage governmental and non-
government human rights institutions to do likewise, with or without
legitimization from governmental institutions. Denial and obfuscation
will neither help victimized Christian women, nor challenge the
religious bigotry and sexism that impedes the development of democracy
in Egypt.
John Eibner
CEO, Christian Solidarity International (CSI--USA)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Coptic women in Egypt are disappearing from their homes, their
schools, and their places of work. They go missing while returning from
church, picking up their children from school, or traveling to the sick
bed of an aging parent. They are often held as captives, subjected to
physical and psychological abuse in the form of rapes, beatings,
domestic labor without pay, forced marriage and forced conversion to
Islam. Their lives, and the lives of their families, are severely
damaged.
The Egyptian government and the international community have
distanced themselves from any sense of urgency or malfeasance.
Detractors claim that disappearances are nothing more than petulant
acts of young women seeking to leave oppressive home environments and
that there is no criminal activity involved. Claims of abductions, the
detractors insist, are rather intended to deflect attention from the
real causes of a young woman's behavior, stemming from feeling trapped
in an extremely conservative religious and social tradition, or
desiring a life with more material benefits as well as educational and
personal opportunities.
To address this issue, Christian Solidarity International and the
Coptic Foundation for Human Rights commissioned a report written in
November 2009 entitled ``The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and
Forced Marriages of Coptic Christian Women in Egypt.'' The report
conclusively stated that Coptic girls and women are deceptively lured
into forced marriages with Muslim men and conversions to Islam; that
the criminality of such activities is generally dismissed by the
Egyptian authorities; that young women are presumed to be willing
participants in such marriages and conversions; that the disappearances
follow consistent patterns; that counseling sessions with members of
their own clergy were no longer available to potential converts to
Islam; that the Egyptian government does not restore the Christian
identity of Coptic women who have returned to their communities of
origin; that Coptic women are particularly vulnerable to deception and
fraudulent practices; and that, while the Coptic Church does provide
safe houses and shelters for some women, it is difficult for many to
return to normal lives.
Since the publication of the first report, the U.S. Department of
State's Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has devoted more
attention to the phenomenon, but without confirming it as human
trafficking. Meanwhile, the Coptic community has become more vulnerable
to persecution on account of the upsurge of militant Islam following
the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak. Emigration is increasing and
asylum petitions in both the United States and other countries are on
the rise. Young Coptic women are particularly vulnerable. Exploitation
often thrives during times of political unrest and internal chaos,
where traditional law enforcement measures, however insufficient, are
usually overtaxed and limited in scope. Lawyers, social workers and
civil society activists report that they are seeing more
disappearances. Four attorneys collectively report a total of over 550
cases for the restoration of Christian identity following
disappearances, forced marriages and forced conversions over a five-
year period, with cases escalating since January 25, 2011. Furthermore,
one attorney interviewed for this report indicates first-hand knowledge
of over 1,600 cases of Christians who had converted to Islam in recent
years, and who are now petitioning to have their Christian identities
restored. Of this number, 60% are women.
Claims that all disappearances are the result of petulant behavior
and not abduction reflect a misunderstanding of the relationships
between the young women and their captors rather than an accurate
analysis of the circumstances. This challenge has been repeatedly
addressed, and not always successfully, in anti-trafficking discourse.
The goal of this second report is straightforward: to challenge the
notion that the testimony of victims is made up of mere allegations and
to encourage the Government of Egypt and the international community to
address the issue openly and responsibly.
The authors of this report recognize that not all disappearances
result from abductions, that not all marriages are forced and some
conversions can be consensual. The authors spoke with a young woman who
quite candidly admitted that she left her husband because he beat her
while her male Muslim neighbor was kind. She eventually returned to her
family.
Notwithstanding the ambiguity of many situations, the authors
maintain it is not possible to dismiss each documented case in the 2009
report on the grounds that girls willingly and without being misled
left their families.
This new report substantiates and confirms the findings of the 2009
publication. In addition, the authors have observed changes in trends
and patterns, all of which continue to reinforce the pre-meditation of
the captors. Only verifiable cases are included in this report. Each of
these cases is verifiable through attorney files, personal interviews
and police reports. The names of young women and their family members
and other identifying details are not published in this report in order
to protect their identities.
The Key Findings of the 2012 Report Are:
The numbers of disappearances and abductions are
increasing.
Fewer girls are returning to their families.
Social media is increasingly used to communicate a
victim's status.
Minors and mothers of young children are increasingly
targeted.
Abductions continue to be organized and planned.
Captors target women and girls when they are unprotected
and vulnerable.
Captors sever ties between victims and their families.
Captors make use of measures involving force, fraud and
coercion.
Recommendations:
This report builds on the recommendations of the earlier
publication in seeking to guarantee the protection of minors, secure
the cooperation of law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting
reports of abductions and disappearances, and expedite reconversions to
Christianity in instances of abductions.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF COPTIC WOMEN IN EGYPT
For over thirty years, reports of Coptic women being kidnapped,
forcibly converted and married to Muslim men have been emerging from
Egypt. What began as an issue supported by anecdotal evidence and kept
alive by concerned family members, clergy and a few brave human rights
attorneys and activists has not abated. Instead, it continues to
surface, strengthened by growing numbers of verifiable cases. The
disappearances, forced marriages and conversions of young Coptic women
are now addressed by western governments and some media outlets. On
October 27, 2011 the European Parliament issued a statement condemning
the violence directed against the Copts in Egypt, and in particular,
expressing concern ``about the kidnapping of Coptic girls who have been
forced to convert to Islam.'' \1\ On December 15, 2010, the BBC aired a
documentary entitled ``Christian minority under pressure in Egypt.''
\2\ In the opening scene, a father relates to the interviewer that
there will be no Christmas tree in their home this year; their
daughter, who loved Christmas, was abducted and has never returned, and
the presence of a tree would be too painful. On June 15, 2011, the US
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission)
convened three experts (including one author of this report) to testify
at a hearing on the status of Egypt's Coptic Christians, with a focus
on the abductions of young Coptic women.\3\ And finally, Yasmin El
Rashdi, writing in the New York Review of Books on June 15, 2011,
quotes a parish priest who raises the issue of the disappearance of
young Coptic women.
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\1\ European Parliament News. Accessed at http://
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20111027IPR30446/html/
Parliament-stands-up-for-Christians-in-Egypt-and-Syria
\2\ The documentary can be seen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
world-middle-east-12014779
\3\ Full Transcript of the hearing is available at: http://
csce.gov/
index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewTranscript&ContentRecord-
id=504&ContentType=H,B&ContentRecordType=H&CFID=59942414&CFTOKEN=3498795
1
``There are no sizable attacks,'' he said, ``but each week
there are incidents of women having the cross grabbed from
their necks as they walk in the streets. In this very
neighborhood people are still being insulted as they leave
church; and we still have young girls disappearing, kidnapped,
being harassed for what they are wearing or for bearing the
cross tattooed on their wrists.'' \4\
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\4\ El Rashdi, Yasmin. The Victorious Islamists. New York Review of
Books. June 15, 2011. Accessed at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/
archives/2011/jul/14/egypt-victorious-islamists/?page=1
Certainly, the climate is precarious for Egypt's 10 million-plus
Copts. During the uprising that led to the resignation of President
Mubarak, some Copts and Muslims stood arm in arm in Tahrir Square in
Cairo, united in their efforts to end dictatorship. Today, Mubarak is
gone. But the Copts have not fared well by his departure. Indeed, they
are facing increasing persecution. The recent massacre at Maspero, in
Cairo, where Egyptian armed forces attacked Christians engaged in a
peaceful demonstration, augurs little favor for the future of Egypt's
Coptic population. According to Nina Shea, international religious
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freedom expert:
``The real significance of this is that it signals the failure
of the Christian Coptic Community by the State. The military
was their last hope in protecting them from lawless forces in
society that were religiously motivated to [eradicate] them,
namely the Salafis. Now they know they have no protection.
[Furthermore] I think we can expect to see a major exodus of
Coptic Christians from Egypt. This is a watershed moment. The
whole reason they were in the streets was to protest lawless
forces. It extinguishes all hope for them. They are utterly
vulnerable.'' \5\
\5\ Joan Frawley Desmond. ``Watershed Moment: Copts Killed in
Violence: Nina Shea predicts a `major exodus' of Christians after
deadly violence in Cairo.'' National Catholic Register. October 10,
2011. Accessed at http://www.ncregister.com/site/print_article/30767/
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Almost as if on cue, two months later the Wall Street Journal
reported that, since the events of January 2011, asylum applications
into the US from Egyptian Copts have doubled. \6\
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\6\ ``Egypt's Embattled Christians See Room in America'' by Lucette
Lagnado. The Wall Street Journal. Saturday, December 24, 2011.
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Among the most vulnerable members of this beleaguered community are
women and young girls. Young Coptic women are applying for asylum on
the basis of fear of being abducted and forced to convert and marry. In
September 2011, Michele Clark, one of the authors of this report,
testified in federal court as an expert witness in one such asylum
case. Asylum was granted for a young Coptic woman on the basis of fear
of being abducted should she return. Other immigration lawyers attest
to recent favorable asylum decisions based on threat or fear of
abduction. \7\
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\7\ Conversation with Caroline Doss, January 12, 2012. Ms. Doss,
together with Ms. Clark and Mr. Jean Maher, testified before a US
Helsinki Commission Hearing: ``Minority at Risk: Coptic Christians in
Egypt'' - July 22, 2011
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THE 2009 REPORT
``The Disappearance, Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages of
Coptic Christian Women in Egypt,'' published in November 2009 by
Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human
Rights and written by Michele Clark and Nadia Ghaly, documented
disappearances, forced conversions and marriages among Egypt's Coptic
minority. This report credibly positioned the plight of Coptic women as
a challenge for the international community.
The report was based on first-person interviews with young women
who had been held against their will by Muslim captors, forced to
convert and marry their captors and who, in some cases, were able to
return to their families. Other sources of information included
conversations with parish priests, monks and nuns at a monastery that
provides shelter to women returning from abduction, and human rights
attorneys who represent many of these young women as they attempt to
regain their Christian identities. Police reports, attorney files and
church/clergy records support each case.
The main findings of the report were:
1. Coptic women and girls are deceptively lured into forced
marriages with Muslim men and conversions to Islam. This
conclusion was reached through personal interviews with young
women who had returned from such situations, parish priests,
the head of a monastery providing shelter to over 50 women, and
an examination of court cases filed by human rights attorneys.
2. Egyptian authorities dismiss the criminality of such
marriages and conversions. Young women are presumed to be
willing participants in the marriages and conversions. However,
these arguments do not take into consideration the role of
coercion in obtaining consent to marriage or conversion. Women
testify to fraudulent claims, the use of force, threats and
physical abuse, including rape and the forced removal of Coptic
tattoos. There were no reported cases of prosecution among all
reported cases. Islam allows a Muslim man to marry a Christian
woman without a conversion, so there is no apparent religious
need for these conversions.
3. The disappearances of Coptic women and girls follow
consistent patterns that include deception, fraud and force.
Testimonies from returning women as well as family members and
attorneys indicate that means of enticement into a fraudulent
relationship followed specific patterns and involved the use of
women and men to build relationships of trust and dispel
resistance.
4. Religious counseling sessions with members of a person's own
clergy prior to conversion to Islam are no longer required.
Such sessions were halted by the government in 2008 and have
not been reinstated.
5. Coptic women face physical and psychological abuse before
and after their forced conversions and marriages. Abuse
includes beatings, isolation from family members, and
restrictions on personal freedom. Cases of ensnarement, rape
and physical abuse are rarely filed in court.
6. The Egyptian Government does not restore the religious
identities of women who return to their communities and
families. As a consequence, these women are unable to marry
within their own communities and in many instances remain
marginalized.
7. Coptic women and girls are vulnerable to deception and
fraudulent practices because of difficult home environments,
economic pressures and sheltered lives.
8. The Coptic Church has developed some safe houses for
victimized women and girls. These centers, usually established
in monasteries, provide shelter and housing for young women
returning from a forced marriage and conversion.
The Report also included recommendations for the Egyptian
government, the Coptic Church and the international community. In
particular, the report recommended that the Egyptian government
1. Reinstate counseling sessions for those contemplating
conversion to Islam.
2. Expedite the restoration of Christian identity cards and
legal Christian status to young women forcibly converted to
Islam.
3. Investigate and prosecute all reports and allegations of
disappearances, abductions, rape and other acts of violence
against Coptic women.
LEGAL UPDATE
In July 2011, Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ruled that
Christian converts to Islam could reconvert and be identified as
Christians on their national identity cards and birth certificates.
However, lawyers representing many Copts, the largest population
affected by this decision, argue that similar decisions in the past
have not been implemented and remain skeptical as to the potential for
any real change. In fact, restoration of Christian identity cards has
remained the exception. Lawyers document a double standard regarding
conversions in Egypt. When a Christian converts to Islam, documents are
processed with remarkable speed. In the case of conversions from Islam
to Christianity, these lawyers report a process rife with red tape and
obstructionism. This process also affects the children of Christian
converts to Islam, who are automatically registered as Muslims when
they reach the age of 16 regardless of whether or not their parents
became reconverts to Christianity. \8\
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\8\ ``Court Allows Christian reconverts to state religion on ID
cards.'' By Heba Fahmy. Daily News Egypt. July 4, 2011. Accessed at
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/religion/court-allows-christian-
reconverts-to-state-religion-on-id-cards-dp3.html
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NEW CHALLENGES
Notwithstanding a growing body of evidence to substantiate
allegations of deceptive and coercive practices regarding young Coptic
women, the issue remains controversial, both in Egypt and abroad. Cases
are normally publicized by the Coptic activist who most fervently
reject the discriminatory conventions of dhimmitude, \9\ and who dare
to cross the red lines drawn by Egypt's Islamic political and religious
establishment. For these activists, the disappearance, forced marriage
and forced conversion of Coptic women and girls is a tangible sign of
the persecution to which Egypt's Christian community is subjected. One
of the most prominent Coptic campaigners on behalf of these female
victims is the journalist and human rights activist Magdy Khalil of the
Middle East Freedom Forum. According to Khalil:
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\9\ Dhimmitude is the collective condition of dhimmi communities.
Dhimmis are Christians, Jews and certain other non-Muslims whose
communities have accepted--usually under duress--Muslim political and
social supremacy according to the norms established by discriminatory
Shariah law. See Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under
Islam, Farleigh Dickenson University Press, 1985.
Abducting and converting Coptic girls to Islam is not only a
result of the paranoid and racist incitation against the Copts,
but it is an organized and pre-planned process by associations
and organizations inside Egypt with domestic and Arab funding
as the main role in seducing and luring Coptic girls is carried
through cunning, deceit and enticement or through force if
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required.
As for the role of the Egyptian state, Khalil explains:
The government does not meet to plan how to abduct Coptic
girls, but it is a conniver and a collaborate partner that
contributed in creating this environment. As for the actual
planning, it is carried out by individuals, groups,
associations, as well as Egyptian and regional organizations.
What the government plans for and implements is the
lateralization of the Copts within the Egyptian society. \10\
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\10\ ``Who is responsible for abducting Coptic Girls?'' Jihad
Watch, August 26, 2005. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/08/magdy-khalil-
who-is-responsible-for-abducting-coptic-girls.html.
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Since the overthrow of President Mubarak, Coptic activists and
families of missing girls have taken advantage of the broader space
given to civil society by forming the Association of Victims of
Abduction and Enforced Disappearance. On the 29th of February, 2012,
they staged a public demonstration before the Egyptian parliament,
chanting: ``Where is the rule of law,'' ``No for the Islamization of
minors,'' and ``MPs, where are the rights of Copts?'' \11\
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\11\ Mohamed Abdel Salam & Joseph Mayton, ``Egypt's Copts protest
`disappearance' of girls'', Bikya Masr, February 29, 2012, http://
bikyamasr.com/59521/egypts-copts-protest-disappearance-of-girls/
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The Copts, whose reflexes remain strongly conditioned by the age-
old violence and discrimination that are inherent in the conventions of
dhimmitude are the most inclined to the respect the rules laid down by
Egypt's Islamic authorities, and to downplay and depoliticize the
plight of missing Coptic women and girls. Dr. Sherif Doss, a prominent
physician and politician, is one Coptic leader who prefers not to
highlight the issue. He explains that the victims are limited to young
females who ``are not educated and have not learned to make wise
decisions in life.'' \12\ Other Copts emphasize that repressive home
environments, arranged marriages and strict prohibitions against
divorce drive young Christian women into romantic relationships with
Muslim men, which appear to offer freedom from a troubled past. \13\
These scenarios, they claim, imply consent and cast doubt on the use of
force. Blaming the victim in rape and trafficking cases is a widespread
cultural reflex in male-dominated societies where pinning blame on
perpetrators runs the risk of serious consequences.
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\12\ Personal interviews with the authors. Cairo, Egypt. November
18, 2011.
\13\ Joseph Mayton, ``Missing Coptic Women May Send Distress
Signals.'' WeNews, February 1, 2007. http://www.womensenews.org/story/
the-world/070201/missing-coptic-women-may-send-
distress-signals.
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One of the most the most vocal proponents of a dhimmitude-
conditioned response, Cornelis Hulsman, is not a native Egyptian, but
is a Cairo-based Dutch sociologist and the publisher of Arab-West
Report. He has established the Centers for Intercultural Dialogue and
Translation and the Center for Arab-West Understanding, and through
these instruments is active player in the foreign relations of the
Egyptian state and church. \14\ Hulsman's Arab-West consortium has long
campaigned against Copts who accuse Muslim men of using force to
kidnap, marry and convert Coptic women and girls. ``[Such] stories'',
Hulsman wrote in 2007,
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\14\ According to Hulsman, his Center for Arab-West Understanding
obtained legal recognition as a Non-Governmental Organization through
the backing of powerful representatives of the Mubarak regime, among
them: the late Grand Sheikh of Al Ahzar Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi,
Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Minister of Islamic Endowments,
Mahmud Hamdi Zaqzuq, and Arab League Secretary-General Amir Musa.
http://www.cawu.org/?About_Us
often reflect pre-existing deep anti-Muslim sentiments and
reinforce such sentiments. Most stories of Muslims forcing
Christian girls to convert to Islam fit this category. Such
stories create a boomerang effect, angry responses from Muslims
that could easily reflect on their relations with other
Christians who had nothing to do with this type of reporting.
\15\
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\15\ Cornelis Hulsman & Sawsan Gabra Ayoub Khalil, ``To Be an
Effective Advocate for Peace, Media Distortions Must Be Addressed,''
Quaderns de la Mediterr`nia, no. 8, June 2007, p. 81. http://
www.iemed.org/publicacions/quaderns/8/q8_081.pdf
Hulsman's coverage is animated by a declared commitment to combat
reports that ``make the public believe Muslims target Christians,
creating Christian self-pity and Muslim anger by using rumors,
uninvestigated allegations, and [by] neglecting social, cultural and
historical contexts.'' \16\ Arab-West Report claims to have
``investigated around 200 of claims of forced conversion of Christian
girls in Egypt and found not a single one of them to involve kidnap,
i.e. the use of physical force to get young Coptic girls to convert to
Islam.'' \17\ But details of only seven cases are provided in what
Hulsman calls his ``most comprehensive'' report on the issue. \18\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\16\ Cornelis Hulsman & Sawsan Gabra Ayoub Khalil, ``To Be an
Effective Advocate for Peace, Media Distortions Must Be Addressed,''
Quaderns de la Mediterr`nia, no. 8, June 2007, p. 81. http://
www.iemed.org/publicacions/quaderns/8/q8_081.pdf)
\17\ http://www.arabwestreport.info/8-christian-solidarity-
international-claiming-forced-conversion-coptic-girls-islam
\18\ ``Forced Conversions or not?'' New York Council of Churches,
June 28, 1999 (RNSAW 1999, 26A, art. 37), the report ``Conversions of
Christians to Islam,'' by Dr. Rodolph Yanney, January 9, 2001 (RNSAW
2001, 01A, art. 4) and the ``Open letter to former US Congressman
Pastor Ed McNeely'' (AWR 2003, 30, art. 34). Also see AWR 2004, 28,
arts. 21-22, 37-38, and AWR 2004, 36, art. 28 for the case of Inji
Edward Naji.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The responses conditioned by dhimmitude strikes a chord with the
Western powers. Since 1995, the European Union has been pursuing the
convergence of Islamic North Africa and the Middle East with post-
Christian, secular Europe through the Barcelona Process. \19\
Meanwhile, following 9/11, President George W. Bush, established
winning the hearts and minds of Muslims as a major American foreign
policy objective. \20\ In this context, the US Department of State,
fearing the anger of Muslim military allies, such as Egypt, Saudi
Arabia and Turkey, downplays and depoliticizes the issue, as Hulsman
does.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ ``The Barcelona Process'', European Union External Action.
http://eeas.europa.eu/euromed/barcelona_en.htm
\20\ ``Winning the hearts and minds' of Arab and Muslim populations
has quite understandably risen to the top of the Bush administration's
agenda.'' David Hoffman, ``Beyond Public Diplomacy,'' Foreign Affairs,
March/April 2002, pp. 83-95.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The US Department of State's 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report
referenced the 2009 CSI report, claiming, ``During the reporting
period, an international NGO released a report about alleged forced
marriages of Coptic Christian females in Egypt, including an allegation
of forced prostitution, though the allegations have not been
confirmed.'' \21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57813/david-hoffman/
beyond-public-diplomacy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The US Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report
for 2010 also referenced this same report:
``As in previous years, there were occasional claims of Muslim
men forcing Coptic women and girls to convert to Islam. Reports
of such cases were disputed and often included inflammatory
allegations and categorical denials of kidnapping and rape. In
November 2009 an international Christian advocacy group
published a report regarding alleged cases of forced
conversion; however, well-respected local human rights groups
were unable to verify such cases and found it extremely
difficult to determine whether compulsion was used, as most
cases involved a female Copt who converted to Islam when she
married a male Muslim. Reports of such cases almost never
appear in the local media.'' \22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\22\ Accessed at http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/
142759.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The authors of the 2009 report recognize that not all
disappearances result from abductions, that not all marriages are
forced and that some conversions can be consensual. The authors spoke
with a young woman who quite candidly admitted that she left her
husband because he beat her while her male Muslim neighbor was kind.
She eventually returned to her family.
However, it is not possible to dismiss each documented case in the
2009 report on these grounds. Over the past six years, the authors have
observed remarkable consistency in the stories of young women and their
families from different parts of the country and from different social
backgrounds, a consistency that supports the reliability of their
testimonies. Respected and well-known human rights attorneys represent
the majority of women whose stories are told in these reports. They
have court documents and sworn affidavits attesting to the veracity of
their clients.
Claims that all disappearances are the result of petulant behavior
and not abduction reflect a misunderstanding of the relationships
between the young women and their captors rather than an accurate
analysis of the circumstances. This challenge has been repeatedly
addressed, and not always successfully, in anti-trafficking discourse.
In critiquing the 2009 report, the International Religious Freedom
Report claims that it is ``difficult to determine whether compulsion
was used, as most cases involved a female Copt who converted to Islam
when she married a male Muslim.'' This statement assumes that all
marriages are voluntary and denies a recognized human rights violation,
which is that marriages can be forced and that force obviates consent.
A recent European Union Policy Directive on preventing and combating
trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims states in
paragraph (11) of its introduction:
The definition [of trafficking in human beings] also
covers...other behaviour such as illegal adoption or forced
marriage in so far as they fulfill the constitutive elements of
trafficking in human beings. \23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\23\ The European Union Directive 2011/36/EU of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and
combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, and
replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Given that the authors of this report have verified that force,
fraud and coercion are present in our documented cases, the fact that
such trafficking cases are linked to marriage does not obviate the
offense, as claimed by the US Department of State above.
This report will focus upon various forms of vulnerability and
coercion and their relevance in these instances in order to make a
clear case for the reality of the abuse and exploitation of Egyptian
Coptic women.
A NEW REPORT
In November 2011, Ms. Ghaly and Ms. Clark traveled to Egypt in
order to gather information for a second report. The purpose of this
new study is to acquire further evidence to support the claims of
disappearances, abductions and forced conversions and forced marriages
of Coptic women in Egypt and to challenge the use of the term
``allegation'' in US Government reports.
The new findings in the report are based on:
1. Interviews with four Egyptian lawyers. These lawyers
provided access to claims filed by families on behalf of Coptic
women who had disappeared as well as young women who had
returned from a forced marriage and conversion and were
attempting to regain their Christian identities;
2. Interviews with representatives of civil society
organizations;
3. Interviews with family members of young women who have
disappeared. Some of these individuals are represented by
attorneys;
4. A review of Internet sites reporting the disappearance of
Coptic girls. The authors considered only those cases with
appropriate documentation, including police reports.
5. Interviews with women who have returned from a forced
marriage and conversion.
All interviews were conducted from November 16-25, 2011, in Cairo,
Egypt, by the authors of this report.
Only verifiable cases are included in this report. Each of these
cases is verifiable through attorney files, personal interviews and
police reports. The real names of young women and their family members
and other identifying details are not published in this report in order
to protect their identities.
AN INCREASING CHALLENGE
This report corroborates all the findings and conclusions of the
2009 report. Additionally, the report provides insight into new aspects
of the disappearances, abductions, and forced marriages and conversions
of Coptic women and girls.
The Number of Disappearances and Abductions Appear To Be Increasing.
As in the anti-trafficking arena, exact numbers of cases throughout
the country are difficult to come by for reasons analyzed below.
However, each of the attorneys interviewed for this report indicated an
increase in his caseload since January 2011. Four attorneys
collectively report a total of over 550 cases of abductions,
disappearances and petitions to restore Christian identify following
abductions, forced marriages and forced conversions over a five-year
period. Furthermore, one attorney interviewed for this report indicates
first-hand knowledge of over 1,600 cases of Christians petitioning to
have their conversions to Islam overturned in recent years, with 60% of
this number being women; in other words, 960 women are petitioning to
have their Christian identities restored.
J. was 18 years old when she was abducted on her way home from
school. Her abductor was a man who had worked for her father
and had begun to make advances towards her. According to a
police report, the man is an escapee from prison, and had
threatened J. ten days prior to the actual abduction. The
threat was reported to the police on May 20. Two days later,
she was drugged, raped and taken to Alexandria where she and
her abductor were married. She was returned to her family on
June 1. Legally, she is still married to a Muslim man and her
identity card indicates that she is a Muslim.
The issue of the disappearance of Coptic women is coming out from
the shadows as evidenced by the emergence of websites managed by Coptic
activists documenting claims of disappearances and abductions.
Increasingly, families learn about the status of a missing wife or
daughter via websites which announce new conversions to Islam. \24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\24\ An example of such a website can be found at http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
mWVjchpIDA4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Data Collection Challenges
There is no systematic data repository within the Coptic community
documenting the disappearances of young women. Priests or bishops keep
records of activities within their churches and communities. Attorneys
maintain their own caseloads. Activists maintain different websites but
there is no cross-referencing with other data sources.
Families of victims do not report all cases. The police do not
register all complaints filed by family members. In many cases, family
members of missing young women reported that the police would not file
a report until a lawyer intervened. In other cases, families do not
file reports because they do not believe that their claims will be
taken seriously or because they fear retribution by the authorities.
Not all families are financially able to secure the services of an
attorney; while not a guarantee of results, the presence of an attorney
would at least enable the filing of a legitimate claim.
George is a quiet, soft-spoken man. His daughter, H.,
disappeared on August 28, 2011. ``I received a phone call
telling me to watch out for my daughter,'' he told us. He took
his phone to the local police to report the threat but the
police did nothing. He tried repeatedly to call back the
number, sending numerous text messages as well.
After that, he kept H. at home all day. For almost two weeks,
he remained at home, until finally he had to return to work.
When he came back home, his daughter was gone. She had wanted
to go to the supermarket, 250 meters from their home, and her
mother had let her.
George looked everywhere for his daughter. He reported the
disappearance to the police, who sent him from one station to
the other before he was able to file a report. Although he was
able to find out the name of the owner of the cell phone on
which he received the phone call, he reports that the police
did nothing. He has not heard a word from his daughter since
her disappearance.
When asked, George replied that he has learned of at least four
similar cases of daughters who have gone missing without any
further communication to their families in his own
neighborhood. These cases have never been registered with the
police. Nor has George sought the help of a lawyer.
It is not only the local police who are reluctant to take these
cases seriously. In September of 2011, human rights attorney Stefanos
Milad Stefanos took fourteen open cases of abduction to the Egyptian
Ministry of the Interior to request investigations. He reports that
there has been no follow up to his report. The authors of this report
met with one father whose case was taken to the Attorney General.
D. was 19 when she disappeared on May 20th, 2011. She went to
work as a computer technician and never came home. Her mother
reported her missing at 6:00 pm that evening. At 11:00 pm, the
police came to their home and told the family that she had
married a Muslim man. The family reluctantly accepted the fact
that their daughter had gone of her own accord.
D. called her father, an army officer, on June 20. As soon as
the father realized that it was his daughter, he pushed the
``Record'' button on his cell phone. Through sobs, his daughter
apologizes to her father and asks him to tell her mother that
she misses her. Her cries are interrupted by the sounds of
someone entering the room. The line goes dead. When K, the
father, calls back, a man answers the phone and says, ``She is
unconscious now but let me tell you something, this girl is
more important to me than anything else. I swear to God, if
something happens to her, I will kill all of you and I will
burn the church. You know that I can do that!" \25\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\25\ Partial Transcription from recorded telephone conversation
between D.'s father and abductor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this case, Stefanos presented the Attorney General with
three requests: The first, to address the threats to the father
and the church; the second, to allow the father to meet with
his daughter; and finally, to allow his daughter to tell the
story of what had happened to her. If she in fact did marry her
husband according to her own free will, there would be no more
charges.
D. has called her father now eight times, asking for help in
getting away. She says that she is abused and mistreated. She
is imprisoned in a room and occasionally has access to a phone.
Her father knows where she is, but is afraid to intervene
because the consequences might be worse. Out of desperation, he
told his daughter to cut herself so that her family would take
her to the hospital. There, he might get a chance to see her.
Unfortunately for him, the family had the doctor brought to the
house in order to treat D.
At the time of our meetings, there had been no response from
the office of the Attorney General to any of the cases brought
by Mr. Stefanos.
Finally, it is important to note that in Egypt, the problem of
violence against women in general and the lack of reliable information
on such offenses is a documented challenge. The UN Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, for example, ``regrets the
lack of data and information on the incidence of various forms of
violence against women and girls [in Egypt], as well as the lack of
studies and surveys on the extent of violence and its root causes.''
\26\ In a climate hostile to the reporting of crimes related to sexual
assault and domestic violence, members of minority groups are hesitant
to come forward.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\26\ Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women: Egypt. CEDAW/C/EGY/C0/7. Forty-fifth
session. 5 February 2010. Paragraph (23)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fewer Girls Appear To Be Returning to Their Families
Our 2009 report focused on young women who had returned from a
forced marriage and conversion and were struggling to regain their
Christian identities. Since then, there has been a discernible change
in the dynamics of the disappearances of young Coptic women. Attorneys
handling such cases report that fewer young women are being returned to
their families. There is speculation that young women might be
trafficked overseas, but attorneys and activists have not yet been able
to document this phenomenon.
A growing number of grief-stricken parents now report that,
following the disappearance of a daughter, there is neither contact
from her captor nor any communication from the daughter herself.
Z. owns his own business in Cairo. He works hard, and his
family is well-off. His wife passed away several years ago and
his daughter, A., took care of the family. On April 8, 2011,
she went to her private tutoring lessons and never returned
home. Z. received a call from a Muslim girl who told him that
A. was not feeling well and would not be coming home right
away. At that time, A. was 16 years and 7 months old.
When she failed to show up for dinner, the father brought
together a group of friends and together they began to search
for A. After three days, he filed a police report. The police
were able to follow the movements of A.'s captors by tracking
her cell phone, which was used with a different SIM card
belonging to a recognized drug dealer. However, even in
possession of this information, the police have done nothing to
locate this man, notwithstanding the fact that he has a firm
link to a disappeared girl. Concurrently, the father ran
multiple missing persons ads in local papers.
The family has heard nothing from A. since her disappearance
and there is no trace of her on any of the traditional
conversion websites.
S. was 23 years old when she disappeared on February 4, 2011.
She comes from a family with modest means and worked in a
plastics factory. She was living at home. On February 4, she
went to evening church services with her mother. When her
mother came out of the church, S. had disappeared. A young
child told her that a microbus full of young girls took her
daughter.
The family searched throughout the entire neighborhood and in
other towns for their daughter, putting up posters in public
places. S.'s father tried to report the abduction on February 7
but was told to go to several police stations before one would
file a report. Since February, there has been no communication
with the family. S.'s brother is despondent. He says that he
has three choices: to find his sister, to kill himself, or to
hope that death finds him quickly.
Social Media
Many families are learning about their daughters' conversion to
Islam through new Internet sites which document the conversion to Islam
of Christian girls.
Fayqa is tired. She has been looking for her daughter since
June of 2010. At that time, her daughter, N., 38, was on her
way to Cairo with her children to care for her when she came
home from the hospital. N. called from home one evening
announcing her arrival time. This was the last time the mother
spoke to her daughter.
Fayqa learned that N. had been befriended by a Muslim woman, a
neighbor, who also disappeared the same day. She has not been
seen since. A woman of some independent means, Fayqa has spent
considerable personal resources trying to locate her daughter
but has found nothing. Fayqa eventually received a call from a
Muslim man giving her a phone number. When she called, another
man answered and told her, ``I have your daughter. She is with
me, and under my care. You will never see her again.''
Finally, Fayqa saw a photo of N. on a website for newly
converted Muslims, and found a YouTube clip in which N. and her
daughter were both announcing their conversions to Islam. Fayqa
was puzzled. Her daughter had never used any form of social
media in the past. The action was out of character. N.'s
daughter, M., is now married to a Muslim student who had been
visiting her at the university.
Minors And Mothers of Young Children Appear To Be Increasingly
Targeted.
In addition to disappearances of single young women over the age of
18, there is a noted increase in the disappearance of minors and of
mothers with young children.
Lawyers report an increase in the abductions of mothers with
children. While the age of consent to convert is eighteen in Egypt,
there are increasing reports that children of mothers who are forced to
convert are also registered as Muslims. Even if a mother returns to her
community, the children are considered by law to be Muslim and will
remain Muslim.
Not all victims come from modest or poor families. H. was
married to a wealthy Coptic businessman and had three children
who attended a private school. She hired a private car to take
them to and from school every morning, accompanying them in the
morning and waiting for them in the afternoon, spending her
time talking with other young mothers. One, who was
subsequently revealed to be the aunt of the driver of the car
she hired, was especially engaging and they began buying drinks
for each other (bottles of juice or other soft drinks). One
morning, after dropping her child off to school, she noted that
the driver was going a different direction. She was drinking a
bottle of juice, and felt uncomfortable. The driver took her to
Al Azhar Mosque. There, she was issued a document claiming that
she was a single woman and that she had converted to Islam.
Furthermore, the document claimed that her children would
automatically become Muslims. Her name was changed. She was
persuaded to sign papers divorcing her husband. In her drugged
state, she did not have the presence of mind to resist.
Eventually she was able to escape and seek refuge with her
cousin.
H. is now living with her cousin, whose family is subject to
threats as a result of her presence in their household. Her
husband will not allow her to see her children and they remain
hidden; the father protects them because he fears that they
will be taken away and sent to an Islamic center since they are
legally considered to be Muslims. She feels trapped: She cannot
see her children, her marriage is ended, and she continues to
have a Muslim ID card. Detractors claim that she was having an
affair with her driver and that the situation escalated beyond
her control. Asked about this charge, she looks up at the
interviewers and with contempt in her voice claims, ``I had a
wonderful life. If I was going to risk losing my marriage, it
would not have been with a cab driver.''
CHARACTERISTICS OF DISAPPEARANCES
Disappearances Are Organized and Planned.
Attorneys, social workers and members of the clergy interviewed for
this and the previous report all attest to organized and systematic
planning in cases of missing Coptic women. Tactics to lure young women
into relationships follow similar patters throughout the country. One
lawyer interviewed for this report stated that the same man's name
occurred in several police reports; he married five Christian women who
subsequently converted to Islam. Family members report that their
daughters or sisters were befriended by a schoolmate, a neighbor, or an
older mother figure over time. Lawyers indicate that their clients
report that the families of the captors benefitted materially;
frequently, family members were provided with new apartments or
furniture, and unemployable young men were given jobs.
H. the wife of a wealthy Coptic businessman, dropped her
children off at school every morning and waited for them in the
afternoon. She became friends with a Muslim woman and they
developed a habit of treating each other to cool soft drinks.
One day H., was given juice that contained a sedative of some
sort. She was then abducted.
J. was drugged by a man who worked for her father and with whom
she had become friendly.
A. was married to an abusive husband. Y., a Muslim farmer and
neighbor, offered to help her.
M.'s mother was abducted. Some time later, M., a university
student, was befriended by a Muslim student. Gradually she
dropped all contact with her friends and extended family. They
are now married.
In some instances, parents or relatives receive warning that
something is about to happen.
George received a call on his telephone. The caller spoke only
a few words: ``Take care of your daughter.''
Abductors Target Vulnerable Women and Girls, and Girls in Vulnerable
and Unprotected Moments.
The concluding observations of the UN's Commission on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
express concern ``at the very limited information and statistics
provided about vulnerable groups of women and girls'' in Egypt. \27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\27\ Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women: Egypt. CEDAW/C/EGY/C0/7. Forty-fifth
session. 5 February 2010. Paragraph (45)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coptic women and girls are vulnerable in the following ways:
1. They are members of a religious minority.
2. They come from closed, insular communities.
3. Their minority status is the basis for legal and social
discrimination
Coptic women and girls are vulnerable because of their minority
status, yet little effort is made by the Egyptian Government to
document this vulnerability or its consequences.
A counselor in a family center describes how the young women are
vulnerable because they come from very closed communities. Young women
want something more, including an education and a career, and they are
vulnerable to offers of excitement and romance. What they do not
realize is that the offers they are presented with are all a fraud.
``One young woman sold her religion for a glass of sugar cane
juice,'' says a social worker. It was not so much for the juice, which
she could get anywhere. It was for the kindness, which she never
experienced.
Says a lawyer: ``The abductors read people. They look for girls who
are vulnerable. In many cases, the abductors are neighbors or family
friends. They know the habits and the vulnerabilities of the family.
And once they figure these out, they make their move.'' He goes on to
say that if the issues are family hardships, inducement usually comes
in the form of material support (or the promise of support). If the
family issues are emotional, the abductors promise romance.
A grieving father told us, ``My daughter was illiterate. She knows
nothing except home, family and church.''
But not all girls are from economically depressed family
situations. In some cases, Coptic women are abducted from wealthy
families, or families of means. Ransoms are not requested, indicating
that the abductions are not driven by economic gain. Rather, these
women disappear or are abducted when they are away from their homes, in
transit from home to work, or traveling to different areas.
Captors Sever Contact Between Victims and Their Families.
The first task of the captor is to come between a young woman and
members of her family. They can do this by force, taking away her phone
and family connections. They lock her up, denying her any mobility.
They threaten her, telling her that, even if she runs away, her family
will never accept her; they will punish her and put her in a monastery.
Eventually a young woman is brainwashed and believes that she will be
safe only with her Muslim captor. Ultimately, she will be truly safe
only if she converts to Islam. Because there is no obligation for a
Christian woman who marries a Muslim man to convert to Islam, Attorney
Stefanos claims that conversion is the ultimate goal of the captivity.
George and his wife have not heard from their daughter since
August 2011.
S. disappeared on February 4, 2011. The family has not heard
from her.
M. left home on May 3, 2011; no one has heard from her since.
N. disappeared on June 30, 2010. The only signs of life the
mother had were through a YouTube video in which N. and her
daughter M. announced their conversion to Islam.
N. did not return from a tutoring session on August 9, 2010.
The only communication the parents have received was through a
YouTube video documenting N.'s conversion to Islam.
Captors Make Use of Measures Involving Force, Fraud and Coercion.
A young woman consents to a glass of sugar cane juice and the
attention of a man whose words promise a life of love, ease and
provision. Another shares drinks with a mother who is also waiting for
children after school. And a third seeks friendship and escape from a
harsh and sometimes abusive home environment. Victims who have not
literally been abducted nonetheless did not consent to being ripped
from their family without the possibility of ever seeing them again;
nor do they consent to being forcibly converted to a religion other
than their own. They do not consent to a life of captivity within one
small apartment, every outing supervised by a member of her new
husband's family. They said yes to the things that young women say yes
to: friendship, romance, hope, a future, safety and security. It is
reasonable to expect that most young women would respond in precisely
the same way as many young Coptic girls responded to these offers of
friendship or romance.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In developing recommendations for this report, the authors
consulted with attorneys and civil society actors in Egypt in order to
assess what government actions might support their efforts to protect
Coptic women from falling into captivity and, as a result, into forced
marriages and conversions. There was considerable consensus as to steps
that the government might take.
EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT
1. Local police stations will take seriously and file reports on
all claims of disappearance of Coptic women and girls. All claims will
be investigated and family members kept appraised of the progress of
each of these cases.
2. The Egyptian national government will request an annual
accounting of all cases of disappearances including open and ongoing
cases as well as any prosecutions that resulted from local police
investigations.
3. The Egyptian government will create a registry to document the
disappearance of minors.
4. Children of parents who convert will retain the religion of
their birth until they are 18 years of age, the legal age of consent.
5. The legal age for conversion to Islam will be raised to 18,
which is the age of legal consent in Egypt.
6. Laws which penalize discrimination based on religion in the
areas of education, employment and the media will be enacted.
COPTIC CHURCH
1. The Coptic Church will maintain a central registry documenting
instances of disappearances, abductions and forced marriages and
conversions of Coptic women.
2. The Coptic Community will educate families and young women on
the recruitment and deception patterns that lead to captivity.
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
1. A legal defense fund will be created to enable Coptic families
to secure the presence of an attorney.
2. International or national agencies assessing the situation of
Coptic women in Egypt will recognize that coercion and fraud are
represented in most cases of disappearance, forced marriages and forced
conversions, all of which obviate the consent of the victim.
3. International organizations will recognize both the scope and
scale of the problem and no longer refer to such offenses as mere
``allegations.''
APPENDIX 1: SUMMARY OF CASES
CASE 1
Date of disappearance: August 28, 2011
Victim: 17-year-old girl
Source of information: Personal interview with victim's father,
copies of missing persons ads in newspapers, police report references.
Current Status: There has been no news of the daughter.
Summary: On August 11, Victim's father received a threatening call
from a private phone. The caller spoke the following words: ``Take care
of your daughter.''
The number appeared on his screen. He tried to call back and send
texts but received no answer. He reported the threats to the police but
received no response. For almost two weeks, the father stayed at home
to take care of his daughter, but finally he had to go to work. He was
gone for a few hours and when he returned, his daughter was gone. She
had asked her mother for permission to go to the supermarket, 250
meters from her house. She had been gone 15 minutes. She was bored and
she complained about being locked up. Her father went after her but
could not find her.
He looked everywhere and could find no signs of her. He reported
the disappearance to the police who sent him from one station to the
other. He was finally able to file a report. His complaint was not
taken seriously. He asked that the phone number be tracked; it was sent
to the investigation department and he was told that this could take
three weeks. He conducted his own research and was able to get a name
but the police did nothing to follow up.
The parents have heard nothing from their daughter since her
disappearance. Since that time, the father learned of 4 similar cases
of unexplained and unreported disappearances of daughters in his
neighborhood. He placed missing persons ads in the newspapers but
received no response. The mother remains distraught and the father
writes anguished poems about his daughter.
CASE 2
Date of disappearance: September 10, 2010
Subject: 26-year-old married woman
Source of information: Personal interview
Current status: Woman has since returned to her Coptic husband
Summary: A 26-year-old married woman had problems with her husband.
She was married at the age of 16. Her husband beat her. He was
unemployed and she worked to support the family. She worked in a
telephone company and was befriended by a Muslim male colleague. She
confided in him about her bad marriage. Their relationship became a
friendship. When the woman's husband found out, he beat her in the
street; her Muslim friend came to her rescue and took her away to a
safe place. Her uncle found out and forced her to go to a monastery but
she ran away instead and went back to the Muslim man. She stayed with
him and converted to Islam; they were married and she became pregnant.
Eventually, because of her two older children she returned to her
husband and had him declared the legal father of her daughter. She did
not feel as if the Muslim man had done anything wrong.
CASE 3:
Date of disappearance: May 20, 2011
Subject: 19-year-old single woman living at home
Source of information: Personal interview with victim's father and
family attorney; recorded telephone conversations; police reports.
Current status: Although the father has been able to speak to his
daughter by telephone, the family has not been able to see her since
her disappearance.
Summary: Victim is a 19-year old girl who had finished her training
as a computer technician. She did not return home from work. Her mother
reported her absence to the police at 6 PM; there was no formal
accusation. At 11 PM the police came to the home and told the family
that the Victim had married a Muslim man. The mother had a stroke and
the rest of the family thought she had gone willingly with her new
husband for up to 3 weeks after the incident.
On June 20, the victim was moved from Cairo to another city and
called her father. The father recorded this initial conversation, which
is abruptly interrupted by the sound of a man entering the room. In a
subsequent call, the man says, ``She is unconscious now but let me tell
you something: this girl is more important to me than anything else. I
swear to God if something happens to her, I will kill all of you and I
will burn the church, and you know that I can do that.''
The victim's lawyer took the case to the Attorney General and
requested three things: 1) address the threats to the father and the
church in the recorded message, 2) allow the father to meet with his
daughter, and 3) respect the wishes of the daughter regarding her
religious identity. To date, the lawyer has received no response.
Victim has called her father now 8 times, asking for some kind of
help. She speaks to him of abuse and mistreatment. She is with Muslims
and reports that she is beaten when she makes the sign of the cross.
She is imprisoned in a room, and occasionally has access to a phone.
The father knows where she is but is afraid that if he tries to
intervene the consequences will be worse. His position in the army does
not help. Out of desperation, the father told her to cut herself so
that the family would take her to the hospital. There, he might get a
chance to see her. Unfortunately for him, the family asked the doctor
to come to the house.
CASE 4:
Date of disappearance: September 15, 2010
Victim: Young married woman with 3-year-old daughter.
Source of information: Interview with victim's lawyer.
Current status: Victim has remained with her Muslim husband and
converted to Islam.
Summary: The victim was married with a three-year old daughter; her
husband was abusive. A young Muslim farmer offered to help her; he was
already married. The first wife contacted the victim's family out of
jealousy and the family placed the young woman in a monastery where she
stayed for 10 days. She was able to contact her Muslim husband, who
reported what had happened to the imam. The imam sent a delegation to
rescue her. A gun was fired into the air. A rumor spread that a
Christian killed a Muslim and the church was burned. In all, 11 people
died: 5 Muslims and 6 Christians. 57 were injured. The subject and her
Muslim husband were arrested and accused of causing a riot. She was
released two weeks later. Her conversion was announced via YouTube.
CASE 5:
Date of disappearance: April 6, 2011
Victim: 31-year-old married woman with two children
Source of Information: Interview with victim's attorney; interview
with victim and members of her family.
Current status: Victim lives with her relatives. She is not able to
see her children, who are now considered Muslim by virtue of her
``conversion.'' Her husband has severed contact with her.
Summary: The victim was married to a prominent and wealthy
businessman with two children, a girl and a boy. Every day, she took
the children to private school in a hired private car. While waiting
for their children, mothers meet and talk. One mother in particular,
the taxi driver's aunt, was very friendly. They began to buy each other
a drink of juice or soda. The victim reported feeling odd after some of
the drinks. On April 6, she took her children to school and noticed on
the way back that the cab was going a different way home. They ended up
at Al Azhar Mosque. She reported feeling physically helpless. She has
little memory of what happened but now has a conversion document which
states that she is single and has changed her religion. The document
also states that any underage children will automatically become
Muslims. Her name was changed to a Muslim name. She was given a Muslim
ID. As she regained consciousness, she realized she was veiled. She was
taken to another city in the Delta Region where she was locked up and
kept in isolation. The family was able to trace her location through
her mobile phone.
She was forced to sign papers divorcing her husband. For five
months, she was never permitted to go out. She was not beaten. She was
able to call her mother from time to time. She was frightened On Sept.
10, the Muslim family left her on her own and she called her cousin who
came to get her. Since that time, she has been living with her cousin
and his family. They all receive regular threats.
Her husband, fearful that the children will be taken away and
raised as Muslims, has cut off all contact with her. The victim and her
attorney believe that the abduction happened because she was
challenging the increased Islamic focus in her son's school. If she
changes her status back to Christian, the state will automatically take
her children because of the document she signed.
CASE 6:
Date of disappearance: February 4, 2011
Victim: 23-year-old single woman who lived with her parents
Source of information: Interview with victim's father and family
lawyer
Current status: There has been no contact with the victim since her
disappearance.
Summary: The victim was 23 years old. She worked in a plastics
factory and lived next door to her parents. She had lunch at home every
day. On the evening of February 4, she went to evening church services
with her mother. At the end of the evening, the mother could not find
her daughter. She ran into the streets, and a little girl told her that
a microbus full of girls stopped and took her daughter.
The family went to all the local hospitals, morgues, and coffee
shops and surrounding communities to find their daughter. They have
heard nothing since her disappearance. The father indicates that he
tried to report the disappearance several times before his request was
taken seriously. The anguished father told us, ``Our daughter is
illiterate - all she knows is home, work, church.'' He felt that he
needed to protect himself and so bought a gun. ``Kids in the streets
have pistols,'' he said. ``Why not me?''
The victim's brother is equally devastated. He says he has three
choices: to find his sister, to kill himself, or to wait for death.
The father knows of other families to whom this has happened and
says, ``Because we are Christians, we are slaughtered.''
CASE 7:
Date of disappearance: October 2009
Victim: 24-year- old-married woman
Source of information: Personal interview; family lawyer
Current status: Living with relatives, not able to find a place to
live. Her husband is currently in prison.
Summary: The victim ran away from her parents and married a
Christian man when she was 20 years old. Because of her parents'
disapproval and her husband's inability to get a job, the couple had a
difficult time finding a permanent location. When her husband was sent
to prison for non-payment of a debt, her family ostracized her. At the
same time, members from a Muslim social service organization reached
out to her and offered her assistance. They took her and her young
child to a house with other women and surgically removed her Coptic
tattoo. Eventually her husband demanded her release and they lived
together for a time. However, his numerous attempts at finding work
failed and he is now once again in prison. The victim is not able to
return to her village and she lives with her brother. She is under
pressure to return to the Muslim service organization and she and her
brother have been threatened and attacked.
CASE 8:
Victim: Young mother of three daughters, ages 4, 7 and 11.
Source of information: Personal interview; family lawyer.
Current status: Children are still considered to be legally Muslim.
Victim's father converted to Islam. It is customary that when a
parent converts, all underage children are immediately converted as
well. This affected 6 children in her family. Her mother took the
youngest girls and placed them in the care of the Orthodox Church to
protect them. They remained in an orphanage for 8 years. After her
mother finally returned for her, the victim discovered that she and her
siblings were legally Muslim. At the age of 18, she became engaged but
her fiance proved abusive and she returned to her family. When she
applied for her own ID card, she was told she was Muslim. She married a
Muslim police officer, feeling that there was no place else for her.
Eventually, her conversion was overturned; she left her Muslim
husband and married a young Christian man who was also abusive. She has
since left him. Her life is constantly threatened by the family of her
first husband. Her daughters are considered to be Muslim because of her
former status as a Muslim and she fears for their safety.
CASE 9:
Date of disappearance: October 2009
Victim: Married woman, 22 years old with a child.
Source of information: Family lawyer and father.
Current status: She is still missing and there has been no
communication
Summary: The family had moved to Cairo 4 years prior to the
abduction because the husband had found a job in the capital city. On
the day of her disappearance, she left home with her child and has not
been heard from since. Initially the police refused to file a report
and tried to accuse the husband.
Neither the lawyer nor the father has heard from the victim since
her disappearance.
CASE 10:
Date of disappearance: May 21, 2011
Victim: Unmarried woman, 18 years old, living with her family
Source of information: Family lawyer
Current status: Victim has returned home but is considered legally
married to a Muslim
Summary: This young woman was drugged by a man working for her
father. He subsequently abducted her, raped her and blackmailed her,
threatening to harm her sister if she fought him. On the 28th of May,
he took her to Alexandria and began pressuring her to marry him and
convert to Islam. She was able to escape and call her father, who came
to get her. She is now living at home; however, she is considered to be
legally married to a Muslim and her identity card states her religion
as Islam.
CASE 11:
Date of disappearance: June 30, 2010
Victim: Married woman with three children under 18
Source of information: Personal interview with mother; family
attorney
Current status: The victim and her children remain missing. Her
mother has had no personal contact with them and learned about their
conversion on a YouTube video.
Summary: On June 30, 2010, the mother was admitted to the hospital.
Her married daughter, who lived in another city, was planning to come
and care for her. When she did not show up, the mother began to worry
and called the husband, who said his wife had left as planned. She
reported the disappearance to the police who reluctantly registered the
disappearance of the young mother with three children. With no support
from the authorities, the mother spent extensive personal resources
trying to find indications of her family's whereabouts. She learned
that her daughter had been befriended by a Muslim woman in her
neighborhood who also vanished the same day, and that her granddaughter
had a close Muslim male friend at the university. She subsequently
learned that her granddaughter married this man.
CASE 12:
Date of disappearance: April 8, 2011
Victim: Young unmarried woman living with her father and brothers;
17 years old.
Source of information: Personal interview with father; police
reports.
Current status: The father has had no communication with his
daughter since her disappearance.
Summary: The father is a businessman who owns a cabinet-making
company. His wife passed away and his daughter cared for the family.
She was 17 years old. On April 8, 2011, she went to her tutorial class
and never made it home. A Muslim girl called the father and told him
that she was not well and would not come home. The father got friends
together to look for her. Three days after her disappearance he filed a
police report. The father was able to track the daughter's movements by
tracing the SIM card in her phone. There has been nothing on YouTube or
other sites.
CASE 13:
Date of Disappearance: August 9, 2010
Victim: Unmarried young woman, 18 years old.
Source of Information: Personal interview with brother
Current Status: There has been no contact with the victim since her
disappearance.
Summary: The victim set out for a tutoring class but never arrived.
In February 2011 she appeared fully veiled on YouTube saying that she
had converted 5 months prior to leaving home. She said she had been
able to see how the church does not make sense and is an act of evil.
There has been no personal communication with her.
CASE 14:
Date of disappearance: June 14, 2007
Victim: Young unmarried girl, 19 years old
Source of information: Personal interview with mother; family
lawyer
Current status: The mother has seen her daughter one time since her
abduction.
Summary: The young woman went to meet friends for pizza and never
came home. Her friends said she was not feeling well and left the
gathering early with a Muslim girl. The police reluctantly filed a
report.
The family has had minimal contact with her and the mother has only
seen her once since her abduction. The father learned that she was
forced to marry a Muslim. The mother has heard reports that the
daughter is being blackmailed with accusations of prostitution and that
she feels trapped. The family launched an appeal on television stating
that the family loved her and wanted her back, but there were no
results.
CASE 15:
Date of disappearance: June 4, 2010
Victim: Single young woman living at home, 21 years old.
Source of information: Attorney files
Current Status: Still missing; no communication with family
Summary: The victim's mother filed a missing persons report two
days after her daughter disappeared. There has been no news from the
daughter since her disappearance.
CASE 16:
Date of Disappearance: June 20, 2010. Missing persons report filed
July 31, 2010
Victim: Married woman, 34 years old
Source of Information: Attorney files, police report.
Current Status: Still missing, no communication with family
Victim's husband reported her missing. There has been no news since
her disappearance.
CASE 17:
Date of disappearance: June 20, 2010
Victim: Unmarried young woman
Source of information: Attorney files, police report.
Current Status: Still missing; no communication with family.
CASE 18:
Date of disappearance: October 12, 2010
Victim: Unmarried young woman; 18 years old.
Source of information: Attorney files
Current status: Still missing; no communication with family,
The young woman was reported missing by her mother.
CASE 19:
Date of disappearance: December 9, 2011
Victim: Married woman with two children; 33 years old.
Source of information: Website, police reports.
Current Status: Still missing; no communication.
Summary: On December 9, 2011, at 8:30 PM, victim left home for a
hairdresser appointment and to buy her little boy a present for his
birthday; when she did not return, her family filed a missing persons
report with the local police station. There was no record of her
conversion. She has not returned and her family has not heard anything
about her at the time of this writing.
CASE 20:
Date of disappearance: November 24, 2011
Victim: Unmarried young girl living at home, 15 years old.
Source of information: Website, police report.
Summary: The victim disappeared on November 24, 2011. A report was
filed at the local police station naming her abductor. There were
witnesses to the abduction. The victim was returned to her home on
January 11, 2012. The family is not releasing any information and will
not talk publicly about the experience.
CASE 21:
Date of disappearance: December 23, 2011
Victim: Unmarried girl living at home, 18 years old.
Source of information: Website, police records
Current status: Victim is still missing.
Summary: The victim disappeared on December 23, 2011. She left home
to meet her private tutor and has not been seen since. Friends report
that on several occasions prior to her disappearance, she was
approached by individuals in cars, but that each time she ran away. Her
family has heard nothing from her since her disappearance.
Prepared Testimony of Walid Phares, Co-Secretary General, The
Transatlantic Legislative Group on Counterterrorism
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Helsinki Commission
of the United States Congress, thank you for inviting me to testify
today before this august body on the highly provocative and compelling
issue of ongoing violence against Coptic women in Egypt, in the form of
kidnappings, rape and forced religious conversions.
1.Violence Against Coptic Women in Egypt
As many experts have already testified before this prestigious
forum over the past few years, and last year in particular, individual
acts of violence against Egyptian Coptic women, both individually and
collectively, have been unrelenting, repetitive, and directed almost
exclusively at young single women at of marriage age or under.
This violence, which is described in several reports already
submitted to your commission, committees in the House and Senate, as
well as to international legislatures that include the European
Parliament, House of Lords, and French National Assembly, reveal some
disturbing trends:
a. The attacks have been ongoing for more than three decades,
with peaks in some years.
b. The victims are primarily young Christian women.
c. Egyptian security and judicial authorities have not helped
the families of these girls by trying to rescue or recover
them.
d. An overwhelming majority of the kidnappings and violence
have been carried out by individuals and groups who claim to be
acting on their belief in an ideology, a doctrine, a set of
fundamental beliefs known as Salafism or Jihadism which they
claim is the strict implementation of shariah laws.
e. An overwhelming majority of these crimes have been dismissed
by government security and justice institutions, and the
radical factions have been protecting the perpetrators,
assigning blame to the female victims and their families.
f. Violence against young Christian women in Egypt has
continued after the downfall of the previous regime, and
formation of the current alternative Government and its
institutions.
These findings prompt the following questions:
a. Have the attacks been widespread and consistently over time?
Is the history of these attacks reflective of the legal and
security status of the Coptic Christian community?
b. Is the violence committed by an organized movement or by
individuals who claim to be acting on behalf of an ideological
movement?
c. Does the attitude of government security, judicial, and
political institutions reflect cooperation with the attackers,
or at least neglect of a segment of Egyptian society?
d. What are the consequences of the continuous attacks against
Coptic females, and thus the Coptic community, despite the
regime change and rise of new institutions in Egypt?
e. What can and should the United States Government,
particularly the Administration, to put an end to these violent
practices against the women of the Christian Coptic community?
Answering these questions will equip members of the Commission and
thus of Congress with the perspective needed to understand the exact
nature of the crisis and make informed recommendations regarding
possible new legislation and alternative policies for adoption by the
Executive Branch.
2. The nature of the attacks
According to prior research submitted to your commission and other
Congressional committees and legislatures around the world, targeted
attacks against Coptic Christian women are not unrelated and isolated
acts of violence. On the contrary, kidnapping and forcing captive women
to convert to Islam has been documented for decades, revealing hundreds
of victims each year. Research and Coptic sources claim that violence
against Coptic women has been practiced since before the rise of modern
Egypt. Research also confirms at that this abuse was documented for at
least the last decade, especially in the past five years. Therefore,
the first characteristic of the crisis is its longstanding history.
This means that any solution to the problem must address its historical
roots and scope of the violence. Christian Coptic women and girls have
been forced from their homes, streets, and neighborhoods prior to and
after the Arab Spring, before and after 9/11, and before and after the
Cold War ended. Accordingly, this phenomenon is part a larger global
crisis that has stricken the Coptic community under varying governments
and regimes. This community, as research and previous hearings have
demonstrated, is facing global pressure from extremist elements in the
Jihadist and Islamist movements, particularly the Salafists, for years,
if not for decades. The attacks against Christian Coptic women and the
Christian Coptic community coincide in time line and are consistent
with the motives with the acts of violence perpetrated against Coptic
targets across Egypt at the hands of extremist elements from Al-Gama'a
al-Islamiyya and the Salafists.
As stated earlier, the attacks have targeted the female Coptic
community, particularly younger women who are of the age to marry (and
in some instances just about) which begs the question about the long
range motive and the political identity of the network of perpetrators.
The juxtaposition of well-documented attacks against the Coptic
community generally, and young women in particular, reveal an
historical pattern of violence against several segments of the Coptic
community, including women, youth people, churches and public figures.
These actions-also per research, archives and reports-are perpetrated
by the same network of militants, from the Jihadi, Salafist and
Islamist movements in Egypt.
3. The perpetrators
While research over the past five years has not revealed a well-
designed structure that officially takes responsibility for the attacks
against Coptic Christian women, it has shown patterns and statements
that indicate the existence of a movement that hails from a well-
publicized ideology, namely, Salafist or Islamist fundamentalism, or
Jihadism. A thorough review of public records in Egypt, online
resources, and past reports submitted to Congress and other legislative
bodies around the world, and interviews with the families of the
kidnapped victims, reveals a clear picture of the group behind the acts
of violence. In almost all cases, the kidnappers argued that their
actions were legitimized and inspired by Salafist and jihadist
principles. One central tenet of those principles is that individuals--
in this case, females--who convert from Christianity to Islam cannot
revert back to their original religion, must accept their (forced
marriage). In some cases, families of the victims were asked to pay a
tribute to recover their daughters.
The reference to Islamist or jihadist views, applicable to
Christian Copts in general and women and girls in particular, shows
that the acts perpetrated against them and their communities are
ideologically and politically motivated, and carried out by men-in some
cases with the help of females--are not necessarily formally linked to
one central organization. But the hundreds of acts of violence have one
pattern in common: a reference to the legitimacy of the violent action.
While forbidden by Egyptian law, kidnapping and converting Coptic
females was defended by the Salafists as an acceptable behavior. The
supporters of such violence often indicate that the girls or women have
been open to such conversion or have since accepted it, thus
legitimizing the original illegal act of kidnapping. The repetition of
the same arguments and scenarios indicates that the movement behind
these practices, Salafists, Islamist Fundamentalists, and Jihadists,
perceives their actions to be acceptable as a matter of policy and
doctrine, thus inspiring more perpetrators to engage in the practice.
4. Government failure and Collaboration
In parallel, reports by human rights groups as well as Coptic
community and liberal Egyptian NGOs, have openly accused local Egyptian
police and security forces, national security agencies, including the
defunct state security agency ``amn al dawla,'' of either covering up
the attacks, or protecting the perpetrators. Human rights and Coptic
Christian reports and media describe the assistance provided to
kidnappers by security police is exhibited in the rough and negative
attitude displayed toward the families of the victims.
The historical timeline of security collaboration with the
perpetrators or at a minimum, non-support to the victims and their
families, also coincides with the timeline of similar aggressive
behavior against the community as a whole. The behavior of state
agencies towards the issue of Coptic women and rape, kidnapping and
forced conversion has been an element of a wider violence committed
against churches, schools or other actors in the Coptic community.
Coptic activists and NGOs -including the Washington DC based Coptic
Solidarity International- have accused Egyptian security services under
the Mubarak regime, of using Salafists to conduct attacks against
Coptic targets to maintain the community under the protection of the
government. Coptic and liberal Egyptian NGOs have argued that the new
security agencies formed after the collapse of the Mubarak regime
continue to allow these practices or help the perpetrators.
5. Consequences of attacks against Coptic women
If the aggression targeting Christian Coptic women continues and
widens, without a determined and massive intervention by the Egyptian
Government to put an end to this practice, there will be serious
consequences on Egyptian Christian women, their communities, and
Egyptian women in general, leading to a weakening of civil society and
a dramatic setback to freedom, human rights and democracy in Egypt. The
chief consequence of unchecked aggressions against Coptic women the
terror it has instilled in the hearts of Christian women who count for
at least half of the fifteen or so million Christian Copts of Egypt.
The hundreds of repetitive attacks against Coptic women send a clear
signal to millions of young women in Egypt who feel targeted by the
jihadists and Salafists, compelling them to limit their movement,
narrow their social circles, and separate them from Muslim communities.
Violence against Coptic women leads to a de-facto gender apartheid in
Egypt, where Christian women will be increasingly deterred from finding
jobs, expressing their opinion, wearing their own preferred outfits and
circulating in public spaces.
The effects on Coptic women will also extend to the entire
Christian community as half of its members are increasingly intimidated
by acts of violence committed on hundreds of young women. When one
segment of community is terrorized, it reverberates throughout their
families and communities, forcing the collective into mental ghettos or
incentivizing emigration. Rape, abduction and forced conversion are
among the root causes of a general sentiment among Copts that pushes
thousands of them to flee the country of their ancestors. The ultimate
goal of the extremist Salafists of establishment of an Islamist state
in Egypt is served by the shrinking Coptic community through
emigration. Coptic NGOS, including Coptic Solidarity International
claims that Gulf funds and local financial circles sympathetic to
Salafism and Wahabism in Egypt have been.
Outside the community, the attacks against Coptic Christian women
and their results will bring other consequence to bear on secular
Egyptian women in general, both liberal and conservative. By failing to
protect its Coptic citizens, the Egyptian Government will be perceived
as incapable of protecting other segments of the population also
targeted by the Salafists and the jihadists. Muslim liberal and secular
women, who already fear the strict implementation and enforcement of
sharia law, will be under increasing pressures by the most extreme
elements of the Islamist movement to wear the Hijab and later, the full
Niqab. The attacks on defenseless Coptic women are a mere prelude to a
wider campaign to impose its ideological agenda, clearly seen in the
Salafist movement as early as 2011.
6. The role of the US Government
The United States Government must use every tool at its disposal to
stop the persecution of Coptic Christian women and the marginalization
of the Coptic community, and on a larger scale, the danger of apartheid
against mainstream women in Egypt, regardless of their religions.
Over the past five years, and particularly since the downfall of
President Mubarak, there have been calls for the Administration and
Congress to use foreign aid to convince the Egyptian government to
intervene against these violent practices. So far, conditioning foreign
aid on the respect of human rights in Egypt hasn't been successful in
changing policies or realities in Egypt. Also, Congressional readiness
to condition foreign aid to Egypt on respect for women and minorities
rights hasn't convinced the Administration to adopt this strategy for
diplomatic reasons.
We recommend for the Helsinki Commission to adopt the following
steps as a way to help protect Coptic women and girls in Egypt from
abuse, and defend their universal rights.
a.Reaffirm the conditions on global US Foreign Aid to Egypt of
a constitutional provision announced by the drafters of the new
Egyptian constitution, that the practices of abducting,
torturing and forcing conversions on Coptic women or any
element of society is a terrorist act unequivocally punishable
by law.
b. Make a Congressional declaration that crimes against Coptic
women inspired by extremist ideologies targeting communities
will be considered crimes against humanity punishable under
international law
c. Partner with Coptic and civil society NGOs, extending
financial support directly to these entities as part of the
global US Aid to Egypt.
d. Ensure that the educational and informational system in
Egypt, particularly state supported institutions, isn't used to
propagate the ideology or precepts used by the perpetrators of
the attacks as a way to legitimize violence and discrimination
against Coptic women or encourage acts of violence against them
.
7. Current political situation
The current political situation in Egypt provides context that
should encourage the US Congress to become proactive in helping the US
Administration redefine its policy toward Egypt, particularly as
minorities and women rights are under attack. For with the arrival of
Muslim Brotherhood presidency in M. Mohammed Morsi at helm of the
Egyptian republic and with a possible ruling coalition inside the
disbanded parliament or the next elected assembly, the ideological
agendas of the Islamist movement at large would constitute a greater
menace to the liberal segments of civil society and particularly
against the Coptic community and its women. Kidnappings and forced
conversions have already occurred under the authoritarian but pro-
American Government of Mr Mubarak. Under an Islamist authoritarian
Government, these practices are highly likely to continue and increase,
endangering not only Coptic women but also the rights of Egyptian
secular women at large.
It is critical during the transitional period between the Mubarak
regime and the future political era, that the United States play a
constructive role that ensures balance between all players in Egypt,
and particularly in support of the weakest elements of society, namely
from the bottom up, Christian women, the Coptic community, Egyptian
secular women, youth and the rest of civil society that is committed to
pluralist and liberal democracy.
[all]
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